By Monique Hepburn, Staff Reporter
HEPBURN ...It is important that we train people to be creative in the way they use their crops and that they are taught how to be self-sufficient. - Photo by Monique Hepburn
This week Farmers Weekly continues its series of features on rural women in agriculture with Charmain Hepburn from Hanover.
WESTERN BUREAU:
JAMAICA'S SUCCESS in agriculture will largely depend on its ability to re-adjust the approach of farmers and other interests towards environmental management and sustainable development.
Charmain Gayle Hepburn, social service and home economics officer at the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) in Hanover is helping to lead this change.
Only recently, Miss Hepburn among four other persons completed an intensive four-day training programme in Costa Rica aimed at 'Strengthening the Competitive Advantage of Primary Producers: Focussing on Rural Women in Agriculture.'
TRAINING
The Inter American Institute for Corporation on Agriculture (IICA) and the Caribbean Regional Human Resource Development Programme for Economic Competitiveness sponsored the programme, which included training in incorporated integrated pest management and crop management.
"How we produce our crops is important to the countries that import our produce and farmers have to be aware," Miss Hepburn told Farmers Weekly. She is actively involved in the training of youth groups, senior citizens and farmers in Hanover.
A graduate of the Jamaica School of Agriculture (JSA), now the College of Agriculture Science and Education (CASE), Miss Hepburn has been working with the Ministry of Agriculture since 1979.
Three of her siblings have also had careers in agriculture including her two brothers who are also graduates of the JSA.
Miss Hepburn said her long stint in the field of agriculture has been 'nurtured' by her love for people and her quest to see residents of rural communities maximise on available opportunities.
SELF-SUFFICIENT
"I like to work with people and see things happen in their lives for the better," she said. "It is important that we train people to be creative in the way they use their crops and that they are taught how to be self-sufficient."
Miss Hepburn has initiated several major agricultural processing projects including RADA's Dasheen Chips project, which was began in Hanover.
The project currently supplies Air Jamaica and local supermarkets. And Miss Hepburn was also instrumental in the project to begin producing chips made from breadfruit, sweet potato, and sweet cassava.
The mother of one daughter, Gaylya, 15, Miss Hepburn often allows her to participate in the training sessions she conducts.
"She gets to interface with people and understand them as well as the difficulties they go through and see how they overcome them," she noted.
