Veteran farmer gets St Bess Golden Award.
THE ST Elizabeth Homecoming Foundation has honoured fruit and vegetable farmer Desmond Whitely for 42 continuous years in the industry.
The 54-year-old son of the parish was presented with the ‘Best of St Bess Golden Award’ at the foundation’s Homecoming Week 2019 Awards Brunch held recently at Lover’s Leap, where he was showered with accolades for his contribution to the growth of the local agricultural sector.
Whitely said it felt good to know that all his years of hardwork and dedication to farming were recognised. “It was very important to win the award. I feel good about it,” he said.
At his four-acre farm in Hampstead and on lands leased in the area, Whitely cultivates high-quality fruits and vegetables, including broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, tomatoes, pineapple, honeydew, and cantaloupe.
Like many youngsters growing up in rural Jamaica, Whitely started farming as a boy, planting small plots of vegetables. Over the years, his love for farming grew, and he decided to pursue the vocation on a full-time basis.
Whitely is always looking for ways to grow his operation, and in so doing, has worked in partnership with international companies to test varieties of fruit and vegetable seeds in order to find solutions to pests and diseases and to improve productivity.
Among these is United States (US)-based company Seminis Seed.
“When we had the geminiviruses that was plaguing Jamaica’s tomato crop, Seminis Seed come out with some new varieties that resist the geminiviruses. So that’s where Jamaica started to come back now with tomato on the south part of the island, where we could plant most of those varieties and get successful crops,” he said.