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Farmers reaping benefits of shaded agriculture
For some farmers in D’Edward Village, East Bank Berbice, 2017 might have gone something like this—they planted sweet pepper, and the crop is destroyed by pests. Months of extreme rainfall mean that they can’t plant anything else. When they finally plant another crop, it’s destroyed by drought. After backbreaking labour, they are still broke, or worse, in serious debt. Fast forward to 2019, these same farmers are harvesting their crops year-round and are looking to supply supermarkets continuously, all thanks to the implementation of shade houses—a simple structure that can sit on a small area of a farm and provide regular crops, which guarantee year-round income if everything else goes wrong.
NAREI’s CEO, Dr. Oudho Homenauth (left) and farmer Evans examining one of the bell peppers under his shade house.
The shade houses are used to protect cultivated plants from excessive heat, light and dryness. In late 2018, the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) provided training to a group of farmers on the benefits of shaded agriculture. Five farmers were identified and the institute, aided by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) assisted in the construction of five shade houses. The farmers identified the crops they wanted to experiment with and NAREI’s technical officers guided them on a weekly basis until the produce was ready to be harvested. Last week the institute’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr. Oudho Homenauth visited the farmers to find out their experience with the shade houses and whether they plan to continue practising shaded agriculture. The response was beyond what was expected. Dr. Homenauth was told that production was higher than what the open field produces, especially for leafy vegetables like cabbages and pak choi. In fact, one farmer, Bisram Evans, planted most of his cash crops under a shade house. Evans told the CEO and a group of farmers who had gathered for a meeting that since he was introduced to the shade house, he has not experienced any flooding or damage to crops due to pest or drought. Under his shade house, he intercrops with celery, pak choi and bell pepper. This is about quarter of an acre. His peppers are harvested after two months and according to Evans, he reaps about eight pounds from one plant. The market value for the pepper is $300 per pound. So if he plants 100 plants, the farmer can make $240,000 every two months. The value for the other crops he used for intercropping is not included in this amount. Having witnessed the success, Evans had with the shade house, 10 other farmers have expressed their interest in introducing the shade house to mitigate climate change. To expand this method of cultivation, NAREI will be supplying two rolls of plastic and one roll of net to the farmers. With the availability of the materials, the farmers have promised to construct their individual shade house in a month. Constructing a shade house requires mesh, plastic, wood and PVC pipes (for the automated sprinkler system). The sprinklers are not necessary. Generally, the beds are either raised or in the ground. The cost of investment depends on the size of the shade house.
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