Frustrated farmer heading back to the office

A 23-year-old farmer, who has immersed herself in the trade for more than three years, says severe drought conditions have forced her to temporarily walk away from her passion and return to a nine-to-five job.

Daneika Myers, who operated two farms in St Elizabeth, primarily cultivating sweet peppers and tomatoes, said while she knew the drought would be severe, she never expected conditions to become “this bad”.

“I had to just walk away for now. It’s rough, trust me it rough. I was doing another job for two months and then because of the earning and distance, I had to leave and I applied to a call centre now and I am supposed to start,” she said.

Myers said after depending on farming as her sole source of income for about three years, her earnings have withered away along with her crops. She told THE WEEKEND STAR that after experiencing heartbreak about five months ago, when a glut of tomatoes on the market forced her to burn an entire field, she is now counting her losses again after investing some $600,000.

“There is nothing on my farm, nothing. I have sweet peppers in trays now, but everything I had on the farm couple months ago dead. I had about 2,000 holes of sweet pepper and mi seh everything dead,” she lamented.

“Mi never reap. Reaping was basically people just come take whatever they want. I didn’t have the swelling or bearing as I would want and it is me and other farmer, because the other farmers are struggling.”

The young farmer explained that the prolonged dry spell and limited rainfall have forced her to purchase water weekly, an expense she said has become increasingly difficult to afford.

“We buy water weekly and that was $12,000 because they bring it from the well, but that is expensive to buy along with other farming stuff. I have a cement tank on the farm where I used to pump water from but that is dry too,” she explained.

Still, Myers said the water crisis extends beyond her farm, with residents in communities such as Ridge also struggling to access a reliable supply.

“No one has running water, everyone either have a tank or drum,” she said. She told the news team that immediate intervention is needed, particularly in farming communities like Ridge that depend heavily on water for their livelihoods.

To illustrate the impact of the drought conditions, she explained that she has about 12 trays of sweet pepper and 10 trays of lettuce.

“I could only wet the sweet peppers, so basically you know the lettuce dem dead because I couldn’t wet everything,” she said sighing loudly

After building her independence on farming, Myers said she never imagined that the pressure brought on by the drought would force her back into a ‘regular’ job.

“I never expected to be back here,” she repeated. But Myers, who is also a young mother, said the financial strain has also affected plans for her child, who she had hoped would start school this September.

“The investment loss, plus back to school because he would now start basic school, that just couldn’t work because I was depending on the farm for an income.”