IMAGINE BEING on a pig farm that does not stink. Imagine being in a place where the sight of these portly creatures is the only evidence of their presence.Well, you don't have to imagine this anymore.
The Jamaica 4-H Clubs, a leading youth training organisation, is working on a project that aims to take away the unpleasant smell from its pig farm.
This is being done through the Long Pond bio-digester plant in Chudleigh, Manchester. The plant was designed to provide gas to operate stoves and other equipment, and to control the pungent smell coming from the farm.
Ron Blake, field services coordinator for the
central region of the Jamaica 4-H clubs told the Jamaica Information Service (JIS) that the bio-digester project could become a major income earner for the parish.
In addition to the bio-digester plant and the commercial pig farm, the Long Pond 4-H training centre also has a sporting complex, which includes a hard court and a field which serves most of the schools in the area.
CENTRE HAS BIG PLANS
The centre is also making great strides in other farming areas, training and research. In September, it will host a landscaping and nursery management course. The centre will also begin another project at an adjoining facility to produce coffee seedlings, other timbers and fruit trees. "The nursery has the capacity to produce a million coffee seedlings," Mr. Blake told JIS News.
The Long Pond 4-H Training centre has also partnered with the Agriculture Ministry and the Jamaica Bauxite Institute (JBI) to conduct research on yams, hot peppers and other crops.
It is also planning to make good use of by products from a rabbit rearing project, which was funded at a cost of $100,000 by Dunbar McFarlane, patron of the Manchester 4-H Club.
"The waste from the (rabbit project) and a poultry farm will also be used to create fuel for the centre," said centre manager, Barrington Henry.
He added that "the extra liquid from the plant is used in the irrigation process at the centre, and this liquid contains soil nutrients such as iron and magnesium, not normally found in regular fertilisers".
The project started last June and spans a five acre property. The larger project, pig farm and a sporting complex were developed courtesy of a $2.2 million grant from the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica (EFJ) and $1.2 million from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
