The Tribune

YOUNG, female, educated and a farmer – for some people something seems amiss with this picture, as the most common line of thinking advances the view that the average Bahamian farmer is male and in his 60s.

Shattering the mould and clearly unlike that imagined stereotypical farmer with his balding head, sun-scorched and leathery façade and aged body, are an emerging crew of modern, educated and focused women who are passionate about growing food.

Among these game-changers is Constentina Hamilton, BAMSIs Assistant Farm Manager for Outreach and Extension. Her presence, her position as a point of contact for farmers involved in BAMSIs Associate Farmer’s Programme (AFP), reveals the new, evolving side of agriculture in the Bahamas and also highlights the challenges that new entrants into the field sometimes encounter.

After graduating from the University of the West Indies (UWI) in Trinidad and Tobago, Ms Hamilton joined the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI) and was given oversight of the protected agriculture and greenhouse department where she is responsible for marrying equipment and tools with growing healthy, flourishing plants.

Her role quickly expanded, however, to include liaising with the AFP which currently boasts almost a dozen farmers, with more expected to be brought under the BAMSI flag shortly.

Under the umbrella of outreach, Ms Hamilton also works with the Ministry of Agriculture, the Bahamas Agriculture Industrial Corporation (BAIC), and agencies such as Her Majesty’s Prison, Simpson Penn and the Ranfurly Home for Children, collaborating with them to create mentorship programmes that utilise agriculture as their foundation.

Beyond the academic arm and the commercial farm, BAMSI also serves as a research facility where new methods for producing better quality plants are developed. The confined conditions of the greenhouse make it an ideal laboratory to conduct trials and experiments to determine the essential ingredients needed to produce plants which are able to grow above and beyond the average production level and result in a healthy and abundant crop.

“If (plants) can’t get enough water, I take what I learned from the confined conditions of the greenhouse and transfer it into the field. I can increase the optimum conditions – sunlight, nutrient uptake, water, soil conditions, pest and disease management – manipulate those variables that help the plant to grow consistently,” said Ms Hamilton.

According to Ms Hamilton, once a successful regimen has been identified she not only takes what she learns and transfers it into the field, it is also shared with members of the extension.

It is at this stage perhaps where her gender most comes into play, where the credibility of her information may be questioned.

And what happens if she has to go into the field to demonstrate a certain planting or harvesting technique, operate machinery or get down and dirty?

“The physical labour, they don’t believe I can drive a tractor or engage in disking or mulching (forms of land preparation),” Ms Hamilton said.

“They can’t picture me picking up a 50-pound bag of fertilizer or using a mulching machine; they try to add up how it works. They don’t feel as if I understand or appreciate being in the sun or being at work at 7am to spray – these intense labour aspects of farming.

“Many of them think you are just textbook; that’s the challenge being a young female. Not until they saw me actually out there picking up the fertilizer with them, sweating and not complaining, then they trust what you do and say. And farmers are naturally sceptical, they have to question when, where and why: ‘when should I plant’, ‘where should I plant’ and why. You try to be as prepared as possible before the first seed is deposited, so you’ve already analysed many questions and viewpoints.”

Like Ms Hamilton, women across the globe and in the Bahamas, particularly in Andros, are taking on more of a leadership role when it comes to agriculture. No longer just subsistence farmers whose harvest feeds their families or provides a small income, these women are entering the field at a number of different tiers – from packing house managers, farm owners, post-harvest experts to marketing directors, soil scientists and agribusiness professionals.

“A lot of women are in research and development, those technical fields such as processing, post harvesting and testing. They take on a range of roles from farmer, marketing manager to the complete business woman, Ms Hamilton said.

“The younger women, many of them highly educated, understand the concept of ‘from the farm to the gate’: from the farmer to the distributor, retailer/wholesaler to the consumer; they understand the complete loop system. Once you understand all of the powers in play you understand how to market. Before you grow or send to the packing house, the women have already determined the end result, the pricing, marketing, cost. Younger farmers get it, but older farmers probably can’t tell you what their costs are.”

It is her position that the average person underestimates the psychology behind farming – believing it instead to be all brawn and no brain – a poor, uneducated man’s job.

The reality, however, is that modern day agriculturalists have to understand technical and scientific matters in order to successfully bring a healthy harvest to market.

“They need to be a chemist, nutritionist, labourer – they are creating life and maintaining it. You need a level of intelligence, sophistication to be successful,” said Ms Hamilton

With a nod of appreciation toward her Nigerian grandmother who grew food to help feed her family, Ms Hamilton said that she has always felt most happy and safe in this area.

“Agriculture has always been the best part of my life. There’s a level of pride in being able to take care of people through food that you’ve grown yourself, ultimately I want to educate people, to get them to be as passionate about agriculture as I am,” she said.