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15 CASE students to study agriculture in Israel

November 27, 2019 No Comments

  Fifteen students from the College of Agriculture, Science and Education (CASE) will head to Israel today for an 11-month agricultural training programme. The students, who will be in Israel until October 2020, are the first cohort to benefit under a scholarship programme that was initiated following a visit to the Middle Eastern country last year by a Jamaican delegation headed by Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Audley Shaw. Speaking at a media briefing at the ministry’s St Lucia Avenue office in New Kingston last Wednesday, Shaw noted that the students will be exposed to advanced farming technologies and techniques, which have resulted in high levels of productivity in Israel. He noted that the Middle Eastern country, which is surrounded by deserts, is able to extract salt from seawater to irrigate lands “because they don’t have the rainfall that God has blessed us with in Jamaica, and [yet] their level of agricultural productivity is unbelievable”. He added that despite limited rainfall, Israel has been able to produce orchard crops such as oranges, mangoes and avocado and has employed techniques to preserve the little rainfall it receives. The minister urged the students headed to Israel to take back what they have learnt to make Jamaica a more productive country. “Be inspired when you go to Israel. Take your mission seriously. Jamaica is in need of your productivity; Jamaica is in need of what you can learn and bring back, so that we, too, can build our levels of productivity in this country,” Shaw said. In the meantime, the minister praised the efforts of the Economic Growth Council (EGC) and the Israeli Honorary Consul for Jamaica, Gideon Siterman, in collaborating with the ministry to initiate the scholarship award. The programme is being sponsored by Israel, with the NCB Foundation footing a substantial part of the students’ travel cost. Another 50 students from across Jamaica are expected to benefit from the progamme next year.

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A STINGING LOVE AFFAIR

May 26, 2019 No Comments

  MBA holder Duhaje Jennings does big business as beekeeper Duhaje Jennings became curious about bees while he was growing up in St James. The little ‘critters’, as he calls them, stung him on several occasions but that only served to deepen his interest, an interest that would later evolve into his very own business — DADA B’s, the largest producer of bee colonies in the country. “My grandfather was a beekeeper and whenever I visited him, I would often get stung. I used to be terrified of the little critters but after a while, I started to get curious and then curiosity turned to an interest,” Jennings told the Jamaica Observer. Now 32 years old, Jennings started beekeeping around age 19, and spent the next 10 years creating the Caribbean’s best behaving bees. They are calm around humans, and they make the highest yield in honey. He told Career & Education how he got his start in agriculture. “Getting into agriculture was a twist of fate. I always loved the idea of growing my own food, but a profession in the medical sciences was the main option that was presented to me at an early age. While working towards that goal, I started to realise the various advancements that can be made in agriculture [so] I slowly started to shift my focus on the observed gaps and gradually transitioned into agriculture”. But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. “One challenge is that enough emphasis is not placed on pushing the agricultural sector in a sustainable manner. There are hardly any new approaches. Another challenge is the availability of land. There are so many idle lands that young persons would like to use but have no access to getting them. Some persons are afraid of leasing the land, for whatever reason,” he said. On top of the challenges presented by the field itself, Jennings said he felt snubbed by some of his peers, not unlike several young people who venture into agriculture as a profession. “In high school and a little beyond, I was usually placed top in the class and for some persons to learn that I am in agriculture now, it’s a big shock. There have been times that I have seen a few past schoolmates pretend they do not see me while I am servicing an apiary. “Family members were a bit skeptical at first, but they have now accepted my path and provide me with support,” Jennings revealed. Upon completing studies at Catherine Hall Primary school in St James, Jennings attended Cornwall College and later on, Montego Bay Community College. He also studied at The University of the West Indies (UWI) and the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech). “I utilised my BSc in Molecular Biology and Botany (UWI) and MBA (UTech) to care for bees and develop a business model. I started beekeeping approximately 13 years ago while attending the University of the West Indies,” said Jennings. He gave an insight into the operation of his business. “I specialise in selling bee colonies. Dada B’s is now the largest supplier in the English-speaking Caribbean. It will take many beekeepers to fill the local and international demand for apicultural products so now I help to facilitate that effort by providing training and starting material such as bees and supplies. My market includes individuals, government agencies and large private entities,” he said. Jennings continued: “Like many other businesses, it is what you put in that you receive. Beekeeping is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It can fail before one even starts, but if done properly, it can make the effort worthwhile.” Jennings won first place in the IICA 2015 Youth in Agribusiness Awards. This year he was selected among 12 individuals as a Nutramix Youth in Agriculture Ambassador. “I always feel good when work that is done in an honest way is highlighted and given some exposure. I think more companies should wake up and realise that the future is already among them,” he said. He also had some advice for young professionals aspiring to get into agriculture. “Do not be fooled. When people can put off other events in their lives, they can’ put off eating. Agriculture does not only mean toiling in the sun in a weathered straw hat. We need more persons from various fields to come into agriculture and grow it in non-conventional ways,” said Jennings.   Link To Article

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A passion for pigs

May 19, 2019 No Comments

  For as long as he can remember, Renardo Stone has been passionate about agriculture. That’s why he decided to formalise his interest by pursuing studies at the College of Agriculture Science and Education (CASE) to prepare for a professional career in pig production, with plans to eventually become a veterinarian or an animal technician. ‘Initially, I was more in favour of goats,” he told the Jamaica Observer. “I usually plant pumpkin, red peas, callaloo, string beans and corn in my family’s backyard. One morning while tending to my goats, I saw this huge boar on the wall and it was right in time for feeding. That awakened my curiosity towards the animals because with the little that I knew at the time, I could not believe that a pig could be that big. So just by seeing that I wanted to learn more about them and to see how they transform from being so small to being so big, in such a short period,” he continued. When his mother passed away, Stone, then 15, worked on a pig farm to help support himself and six siblings. “With no father present before and after our mother’s death, the intention was to split us up — but we as a unit decided to stay together,” he said, adding that relatives did provide some supervision and financial support. “However, I still wanted to have enough money to buy what I needed for myself without asking for money all the time. Therefore, what I did was to work by the pig unit every morning before I went to school because, at the time, I was on the evening shift — giving me enough time during the morning to get sanitation done at the unit and to get ready for school. “I did this for the remaining time I had left in high school and through this small income venture, I managed to support myself. The motivation that I experienced on a daily basis allowed me to earn an award for the top-performing student for agriculture at my graduation in 2012,” Stone told Career & Education. He recently completed an Associate of Science in General Agriculture at CASE, and is now pursuing a bachelor’s in animal science. As he tells it, his interest stemmed in part from the fact that members of his family in Comfort District, from which he hails, have been involved in agriculture over the years. “I have uncles who are involved in crop production but not on a large scale, as well as a cousin who is involved in livestock farming. I was terrified at first, but by slowly adapting to the husbandry practices that are done on a daily basis and the other things such as feeding and performing various activities like post-natal care, I became comfortable around them. This helped me to overcome my fears and it was the beginning of how my passion for pigs developed,” he explained. He continued: “Pigs are extraordinarily intelligent. They are curious and insightful animals who are widely accepted as being smarter than young children of at least three years of age, dogs, and even some primates. Pigs are extremely sociable animals and they form close bonds with other individuals and love close contact and lying down together.” Worked on the pig farm also helped him gain valuable experience. At the age of 20, Stone worked as farm supervisor at Kezmar Organic Farm, nestled in the small farming community of Madras in St Ann. “My employer was Miss Marsha Smith, the CEO of the farm. Initially, I was working alone and did all the duties as it related to the upkeep and the continuous development of the facility. I did everything to maintain a high standard of farm operation,” he told the Observer. He spoke about his contribution in transforming the farm into a successful operation. “When I first got there the condition was nothing to bare but the greatest thing is that the CEO listened to my opinions and tried to make what I suggested work for her. There weren’t any nipple drinkers for the animals and they had to give them water from buckets and each time that they did that, the water kept turning over causing a mess and a lot of waste. The number of animals went down to 19 in a unit with a holding capacity of about 80 animals at the time,” he reported. So he set about improving the operations, from aesthetics, the watering system, sanitation and the overall farm hygiene. “Afterwards, I asked for different breeds inside the unit and more gilt to work with. At the time, funds were low so I had no choice but to work with the scrub animals that I had. I dewormed them, gave them vitamins and had them receiving the right quantity of ration daily, with a free-flowing watering system which I designed with a gravity glow from 50 gallon drums through the unit,” said Stone. He added: “I selected the best from the 19 that I had and I started to do test runs in order to get the right litter size and also make the environment convenient for piglets to survive in. After a few trials, I managed to perfect the art and created a system where I would have at least two sows farrowing every week with filtering the stock that we purchased from other facility. In less than a year, I moved the numbers from 19 to 108. It wasn’t a huge facility but it was performing way beyond its holding capacity and that influenced the construction of new pens for finishing and fattening.” That success, coupled with the streatgy he used to overcome the ficinacial difficulty left by his mother’s passing, has made Stone a believer that “nothing will work if you don’t work towards it”. Now 24, Stone is among 12 young people Nutramix has named its Youth in Agriculture ambassadors for 2019. They are featured on a glossy calendar

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