Inner-city youth earning their bread through farming

When THE STAR team visited Majesty Gardens yesterday, one could not help but notice two teenagers standing in the mud, hard at work constructing pig pens for their animals.

The youngsters, Amir Sutherland and Maurice Smith, both 15, said they decided to build the pens at the last minute in order to secure them during the passage of Tropical Storm Melissa, which is expected to lash the island as early as tonight.

"Some a di pigs dem big and can stay in normal pen, but we a build dem one here for the little one dem. What we do is build it next to a big wall, suh if the heavy breeze blow, it ago blow over the pen. We nuh want dem wash away because the gully ago come dung," Smith said.

Sutherland said he decided to join his fellow businessman in constructing the pen, having learnt the hard way with one of his animals a while back.

"One a mi pig dem get wash weh already suh mi nah take any threat. The little pig dem can't manage the heavy water like the big sow dem, so we a prepare this for them. Some a dem deh bout the place a roam but dem tame. So when the time come, we ago just catch dem and put dem up. We family a help we build the pen as well," he said.

As he drove nails into the board pallet, Smith, a student at Waterford High School, says his day usually starts at 4:30 a.m., as he has to tend to his farm before venturing to class.

"After mi wake, mi go out and feed dem and make sure say the pigs and game fowl dem alright. So by 5:30 mi get back home and get ready and deh a bus stop by 6:30. When mi get homework, mi do it from school, mi only do projects at home. Doing homework at school give mi time to come back home come look pon di pig dem. Mi still get good average though because mi last report did inna the 80s," he said.

For Sutherland, a third former at Tivoli Gardens High School, he has dreams of being a full-time farmer. He said he is currently earning an income from his venture and uses some of his earnings to add to the dinner table.

"Mi wah work for mi self, mi wah be a farmer and a dats why mi start do this from mi a 12. Mi have more dan a dozen pig and is about one or two mi did start with. Mi did have more pig eno, but mi sell some and mi use the money buy feeding and buy food for the house so mi can help out. The big pig dem nuh eat nothing more than noni leaves but the little ones have to get feeding and sometimes we go by Sakura restaurant and get some leftover fi dem," he said.

"We have all wild hog too because people buy dem. Right now we have a big one in a trap to go collect. Wild hog meat more chewy and tough but people love it. The pen hog meat dem more softer, dem get other food. In the future mi ago add more animal to mi farm," Sutherland added.