Vilma Tyson, an enterprising and independent woman

Oct 29, 2012 News

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By Enid Joaquin
‘Lime, tomato, celery, seasoning’–the lyrics of a popular soca song, written by the talented Michael James and sung by the equally talented George Anthony Abrams, is done to such hypnotic rhythms that both the young and old are tempted to shake a leg, whenever or wherever the song is played.
But little thought is given to the genesis of the lyrics, which captures the sales call of those vending the condiments, and even less to the men and women who toil in the fields, day after day to produce them.
From typewriters and stilettos to spade and long boots, Vilma Tyson, an enterprising and independent woman, is one of those farmer/vendors to whom the song is somewhat of an anthem–albeit with slightly modified lyrics, depending on the particular crops in season.
Sometimes it’s ‘okra, boulanger, pumpkin, plantains- or bora, squash, oranges, bananas!’

However, whatever the sales pitch, to Tyson the goal is always the same-  to sell the produce from her West Watooka Farm.
Tyson has had a long love affair with mother earth, because even as a secretary and administrative assistant, wearing stockings and stilettos and clacking away on a typewriter, she was planting and selling vegetables on the side.
This supplemented her income greatly, and certainly put more food in her pot. Tyson confesses that her love for farming was nurtured during the time she spent working with the late President Forbes Burnham, who mandated that all his staff owned a kitchen garden.
“So I developed an interest in farming, because one of the things we had to do during Burnham time was go to Hope Estate and you also had to go to the cane fields.
“In those days I used to get up early in the mornings, thanks to the daylight saving time,(another Burnham initiative) and tend to my kitchen garden, before I go to work. At the time I was living in South Ruimveldt in Georgetown, and I used to sell some of the things right from that garden. Since then I grew to love farming, and better yet I realized I could make money doing it.
Decades later, Tyson has honed her farming skills to the extent that she presently makes her living from it.
And she has graduated from the kitchen garden in South Ruimveldt, to acres of farmland at West Watooka.  But she can no longer sell her crops to the neighbors, as her new homestead sits among a community of farmers.
She currently sells her produce from the comfort of her “tent-boat”, which she moors at the Adams boat landing at the Mackenzie River Front on most weekdays, but especially on weekends.
A lot of her customers are the people crossing the river with the popular boat service, but  other people seek her out from as far as Amelia’s Ward and Coomacka, to purchase her farm fresh produce.
Tyson seems the typical farmer, with her trade mark head tie and cap, and is only one of two vendors, who sell their produce at the River front, from the confines of a boat.
The boat is fully equipped with outboard engine, which she operates herself, for her market trips.
Tyson said that she was forced to find alternative means to market her produce, after the Town Council mandated that all vendors remove from the Coop Crescent thoroughfare, which she had formerly occupied.

“Boat Vending” thus became the chosen modus operandi for her, after her unsuccessful bid to obtain a stall on the now popular vendors’ wharf, which was the alternative venue for the displaced vendors.
‘I remember seeing persons vending from their boats, while I travelled in the Caribbean, so I thought I would give it a try, and I’ve never regretted my decision”, Tyson declared.
She added that her aim was to make the boat as comfortable as possible, as she was going to spend a lot of time in it. Fitting it with a ‘roof,’ to save her from the elements, suited her purpose perfectly.
Tyson maintains that her present occupation has afforded her a comfortable lifestyle, because even as a single mother, she was able to build her own home- not the typical farmhouse, but a beautiful and modern home.
In reflecting on her younger days Tyson spoke of her ‘office work’, which she used to ‘juggle’ with her academic pursuits that would see her attending the University of Guyana.
Her first place of employment was the Guyana National Service, where she was employed as a secretary.
She would later move on to the Referendum programme in 1981, and then seconded to the office of then President of Guyana, Forbes Burnham.
After her tenure at the Office of the President, Tyson said she moved on to a few Ministries, serving in various capacities.
“But the area that spoke most into my life is when I worked with President Burnham, because when I went there I had my qualifications in shorthand and typing and English, but I was encouraged to attend the Critchlow  Labour College, which afforded me the opportunity to attend a commonwealth youth programme, where I spent two years with Malcolm Parris and others, and it was from there that I began to branch out, because they were the people that encouraged me to do anything that I set my heart on, because I was young, and I had ‘to get on stream’, Tyson reflected.
She would later seek and gain employment with the Guyana Electricity Corporation as an Administrative Assistant, and later the Guyana Revenue Authority, from where she retired in 2005.
NOT THE END
When Tyson retired from the GRA in 2005, she did not wring her hands and wonder what she was going to do- she already knew. She had decided that instead of becoming just another stay-at-home single mother, she was going to be once more gainfully employed, but this time around she was going to be her own boss. She would launch into farming in a big way.
Her first move was to join the Region 10 Farmers Association, which afforded opportunities to attend workshops in Grenada and elsewhere.
She noted that, except for two instances where she was granted land clearing assistance from LEAP, she did not seek funding from any financial institution, to launch her new farming project, but utilized her personal savings.
Tyson currently has seven and a half acres of land which she cultivates, with every crop imaginable, but cited her greatest challenge, which is labour.
“Because the land is fertile here you can plant anything, but because of the problem with labour there is only so much you can do. People don’t want to work hard-they want fast money, so there is a problem attracting workers,” she lamented.
Despite this however, she continues to persevere, sometimes managing the farm alone.
Another problem is the lack of potable water. She has to pump water from the river for household purposes as well as to water her crops, even though the West Watooka GWI water treatment plant is less than half a mile away. She has to buy drinking water or depend on rain water.
There is also no electricity where Tyson lives. She has applied to LUSCSL for power for the past twelve years she said, but to date is still without lights.
“Now I would like to go into poultry rearing in a big way, but with no electricity that would be tough-I can’t do it. Right now we have to use generators and battery lamps and that is very costly. Let them give me electricity and they will see what I can do.”
These challenges would be enough to make other persons less resilient give up, but not Tyson, who has instead worked out strategies to further consolidate her position. She is in the process of acquiring and planting three thousand cherry plants, which she intends to cultivate on a large scale.
The cherry trees would not require as much labour and man hours as the cash crops, and as such, overtime would yield more profits, she concedes.
Apart from that, her present ‘in nursery crops,’ include three hundred tomato plants and ‘numerous pakchoi and pepper plants. She also plants red peas, pumpkins and water melons.
More permanent crops include coconuts, citrus, plantains and bananas.
With only two workers to help her, Tyson is currently clearing her fields, and pruning her citrus trees.
Her favorite working times are very early in the mornings, and late in the afternoons.
“Farming does not have to be stressful or tedious, you only have to pace yourself, and avoid working when the sun is too hot’’, she advises.
Tyson has three grown children, two girls and one boy, all of whom have walked in their mother’s footsteps and presently run their own businesses.
Michelle, the eldest is a trader in clothing and other goods in Georgetown, while her younger sister Roshelle rears cattle in Berbice. The youngest is a barber and lives with her at West Watooka.
This proud and independent single parent advises people- especially youths, and single parents like herself, to get into agriculture, as there are opportunities for much growth and self-development in this sector.

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