Farmers yesterday offered their baskets of vegetables and fruits – of all sizes and colours – at the Mahaica Playing Field in Speightstown. Meanwhile, the National Conservation Commission was centre stage for an assortment of plants.
It was a day when Barbadians cashed in on the fresh produce and plants at discounted prices.
Randal Banfield of the Barbados Agricultural Development & Marketing Corporation (BADMC) said the ten farmers at the Speightstown market included those of the Spring Hall Land Lease Project and a few from St Philip.
Geared towards providing farmers with the opportunity to sell their produce, the market is only the second held in the north “because of monetary constraints”, said Banfield.
He said the aim was to get a farmers’ market started in the northern area, in the hope it would “catch on” and that farmers could continue on their own.
Banfield pointed out that land for farming was still an issue because of the limited amount in Barbados, and because there was also the problem of “putting infrastructure in place relating to drainage, electricity and irrigation”.
“The River Land in St Philip is basically full, so there is not much room up there for additional farmers now,” he stated.
Russell Codrington was one the farmers from the Spring Hall Land Lease Project who brought his onions, watermelons, tomatoes, butternut squash, pumpkin, broccoli, cabbage and hot peppers.
He said while he was lucky not to have to deal with theft or Giant African Snails, a few of his crops had suffered heat and water damage recently.
He said while he had a lot of young crops on the way, he was not too keen to do much more planting because of the coming rainy period.
St John farmer Marcina Mottley, who brought down her marjoram, thyme, parsley, ginger and turmeric, was not as lucky as Codrington.
She had been hit by both thieves and monkeys.
Over at the NCC, senior clerical officer Mercedes Gill said the day had been “pretty overwhelming”.
She said hundreds of people had turned out for the event and had purchased a great number of plants, most of which had been on sale at special prices.
Patrons also used the opportunity to sample the nail painting, and purchase jewellery, and the natural soaps and candles of Mine Body, Mine Health.
