George Henry, Gleaner Writer

Cebert Cohen

Spaldings, Clarendon:

It is good when you can get international exposure but for Cebert Cohen, he thinks he has had enough and wants to dedicate those skills he learned over years to his local farming operations.

Born in Sanguinetti, Clarendon, the 48-year-old farmer grew up in an extended family where his grandfather's daily trip to the field was his childhood routine. "I grew up with all of them and I used to go to the fields with them. They have been in farming for all of their life and it was so that I learnt a lot about farming from them and decided that I wanted to do a little for myself," said Mr. Cohen.

Though he had stopped for a while to operate his route taxi and sometimes fill in on some masonry work, it is farming that has his heart and so he returned to it even while working seasonally overseas on the Canadian Farmwork Programme.

Concentrate on his local farm

The Clarendon farmer has been a regular worker on the Canadian Farmwork Programme for more than 17 years, but now feels it is time to call it quits to concentrate on his local farm.

"I have been going to Canada over the years and I have seen the kind of work that the farmers there perform, so I said to myself since I am going to the white man country to do their work, I can do some here for myself and earn bread out of it," he related.

The father of three is currently planting crops such as plantain, dasheen and sweet pepper and also rears pigs and layer hens. He has plans to add goats and cattle to his livestock and intends to make better use of the slightly less than two acres of land where he resides.