St Catherine farmer working to combat CLIMATE CHANGE
RANDY FINNIKIN had just started farming in Colbeck, Old Harbour, St Catherine, in late 2016, when heavy rainfall caused streams feeding a nearby pond to overflow their banks and flood his farm.
Subsequently, equally damaging flood incidents made him concerned about the predictions that the island will suffer from more floods and droughts, as global climate patterns become more unsettled. As a result, Mr Finnikin is learning to manage his farm to address these extreme weather conditions.
“I wasn’t aware of the history of the land when I was putting my business plan together,” he said. “Now, my challenge is that during heavy rainfalls, the pond behind the land overflows and has inundated the farm on three occasions.”
This was a shock t o t he community development manager and father of two, who has been in farming, in one way or another, for all of his life. He started as a child, pasturing goats prior to going to school in the mornings. Later, he enrolled at Jose Marti High School, when it had primarily an agricultural focus, before work ing with several companies in the agricultural sector, as well as in the correctional services, where he taught farming to inmates.
He decided to acquire land and start growing onions after learning that Jamaica had a high demand for the vegetable. After about one year, he had three and a half acres of his farm under onion cultivation and employed up to 25 persons, based on seasonal needs. And, he recently began clearing two additional acres to plant more onions, along with hot pepper and pumpkin.
“My dream is to have up to 15 acres of land under cultivation, with a section dedicated to poultry farming,” he explained.
However, to achieve that dream, he needed to overcome his environmental challenge. He came to realise that the fertile alluvial soil on his farm resulted from the fact that it is located within the natural basin of the pond, making it prone to flooding.
“I spend a lot of the time off from my regular job learning to understanding how the water flows on the land, so as to prevent more damage to my crops,” he related. “That is when I am not digging trenches to get the water to flow off.”