Farmers in Regions Five, Six benefit from shade house project

Farmers of Regions Five and Six are now benefitting from new shade houses through a collaboration between the Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF), Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), and the National Agricultural Research Institute (NAREI).

The collaborating partners on Thursday visited three shade houses as the beneficiaries started planting their first crop.

One of the Newly Constructed shade houses

Speaking with DPI, Mr. Dikedemma Utoh of BNTF said the project is being funded at the cost of $30.7 million to construct 26 shade houses in eight of the 10 administrative regions.

“We are trying to give infrastructure or benefits to the community that will translate in increasing income at the household level so we would have given the group the shade house, but at the end of it all each farmer will benefit from the profits so that increased income will translate at the household level,” Mr. Utoh said.

Among those who benefited is Ms. Dian Leitch-Hinds of Sandvoort, Region Six.

“We learnt of agriculture over the years that planting under the sun is the best way forward; now in our training, we were told that the shade house is the better way, in order to get a better produce and it helps with insects, it helps with fungus as long as you use clean water,” she said.

Wynette Haywood of Sandvoort prepares for planting in the newly constructed shade house.

Farmers engaged in training in preparation for shade house farming.

Caroline Rahaman and another member of the of the Light Town Agriculture Cooperative Society water the soil mixture before planting seedlings.

Dian Leitch-Hinds Secretary of the Secretary of the Sandvoort Agricultural Coop Society.

Members of the Central Methodist Church at New Amsterdam mix the soil for before planting in their new shade house.

Dikedemma Utoh Project Manager.

Water filtration system on the shade house.

The farmers were introduced to new crops like garlic, broccoli and cauliflower, which they are now trained to cultivate organically in the shade houses.

Ms. Wynette Haywood is another Sandvoort beneficiary who has been involved in farming from a very young age. She is thankful for the support.

“We had some training which I learnt a lot, which is very good, they can train us how to prepare the shade house, how to set up the bed, the amount of soil you have to mix, how to spread the plastic in the box and before planting you must be able to wet the soil,” Ms. Haywood told DPI.

Another young farmer, Ms. Caroline Rahaman, of Light Town, said the new farming method would help ensure the community is supplied with healthy foods.

“We get to do farming much more comfortable; we don’t have to be in the sun and also our produce will be healthier, more attractive so that people can buy, they won’t have a problem ‘oh the leaves look so…the cabbage look so wormy I don’t want it,’ because that’s the challenges we face in the garden, so this is gonna help us a lot, to get more customers and maybe even get a chance to have a bigger shade house,” Ms. Rahaman said.

The shade houses measure 18 by 24 feet, have six beds and are three feet above ground to protect against flooding.

They are designed to harvest rainwater and filter it before watering the plants. The structures are made of hardwood, shade house plastic, shade house mesh and shade house netting.