Claudia Gardner, Gleaner Writer 
Donald Campbell examines a colony in his apiary in Dias, Hanover. - Claudia Gardner Photo
HANOVER:
FOR 27-YEAR-OLD farmer Donald Campbell, farming is not only a family tradition, but a full-time career with many job opportunities.
Campbell grew up in the rural farming community of Dias, Hanover. He first became engaged in the industry at
age six, when he started accompanying his grandparents to
their farm.
"I used to help my mother
to carry water and to get
rid of weeds at the time,"
Mr. Campbell told Farmers' Weekly at his farm in Dias. "At age 12, I started my own little subsistence farm right here in Dias and started farming commercially during my final year at Rusea's High School in 1995. The school even employed me to work on the school farm back then, and I still work there part-time as a farm instructor."
FROM A TENDER AGE
Today he raises bees, and cultivates vegetables such as callaloo, cabbage, sweet pepper, tomato, pak choi, and scotch bonnet pepper. However, he said his passion lies with bee-keeping, which he started doing in 2003, three years after being introduced to it by the Hanover Bee Farmers' Association.
"I started off with one colony of bees which grew to 15 by 2003. However, mites infested and wiped out the colonies that year, leaving only four. I have since revamped the farm and now I have a total of 17 colonies," he said, adding that he aims to own at least 500 colonies by the end of 2007.
Campbell told Farmers' Weekly that he was trained in apiculture management by the Ministry of Agriculture's Apiculture Unit in 2002. The training included bee farm management, disease prevention and pest control. This training, he said, has enabled him to earn extra money from providing consultation to other bee farmers as far away as Portland.
WITH A PASSION
"I love bee farming," Campbell said. "It is easy to manage and is not time-consuming. Also, there are not a lot of farmers in it, there is no praedial larceny and there is a ready market. I sell all my honey wholesale to supermarkets in Lucea," he said.
Campbell is encouraging more young people to enter the profession because it is a profitable means of self-employment.
The bee farmer said: "Some young people think that farming is a slavery thing or old people thing because they watch their parents work on the farms and don't become rich. But I would advise more young people to enter farming because nowadays there is more technology, so people can get more (money) from it."
