Evicted Bernard Lodge farmer facing uncertain future
Published:Saturday | December 12, 2020 | 12:06 AMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer
Derrick Banks, once one of the harder working and more successful farmers on a section of land across from the Caribbean Estate housing scheme in Greater Portmore, is these days a broken man.
On Tuesday when The Gleaner caught up with him at the plot of land he had cultivated for over 20 years on a section of the Bernard Lodge Sugar Estate in St Catherine, Banks was dejected and at a loss as to his next move. He was uprooting and assembling some of the irrigation pipes used in his farming venture over the years, with a view to securing them for future use, but could not say when and where that would be.
A minibus was parked across from a shed which stood directly in front of what used to be a plot of pumpkin.
“Pack me a pack up, some down inna the gully, some pack up all bout. Right now over a million worth of irrigation lay dung bout ya. A no ordinary hose them ya. Some of them a all 200 feet long and the couplings/connection really expensive and I have a whole lot of them packed up,” he shared.
Banks had been an independent construction contractor whose services were well sought after, when a very good friend who had leased the land offered him a section to cultivate for himself. Even though he had second thoughts, once he came and saw the land, he was hooked.
“When him come to me, me say you know say me skill inna me head and me comfortable. Him say, ‘Come look pon the place’. So I come over here and come look at the place and I feel comfortable.”
HARD WORK
The hardworking former construction contractor threw himself into his new-found venture with vigour, and distinguishing himself by his hard work and dedication in planting a wide variety of crops – pumpkin, tomatoes, cabbage, onions and papayas, among them.
“The type of work weh me do yah so and the type of farming that I put in, me no supposed to come out like that. When me a reap all tomato me a pick all 20,000 pounds a week, and sometimes up to six persons me employ.”
Things have changed drastically since the Sugar Company of Jamaica (SCJ) Holdings Limited declared its intention to reclaim the land for a major housing development and ordered Banks to leave. Since then he has been to a number of meetings with representatives of the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) but nothing has come of these talks.
“I don’t really have an option right now because I attend every meeting and to be truthful the land inna my friend name and him have the control. So if the government ago give anything, a him. All of my other farmers friends them get pay up and have been relocated, only one and two a we leave and me a one of the persons who is left behind. Big man, I am not comfortable, I am upset now. The government handle me bad when you consider say me a one of the top farmers round here and attend RADA meeting all the time.”
Banks declared that he has been served with a formal eviction notice, but lamented that he had paid lease and water fees over the many years of occupation. He charged that many of his friends had since been relocated and had established themselves, while he has been left uncertain of his future.
He recalled the days when things were much better, explaining that farming was by no means a get-rich quick project but one that could pay, if one invested the requisite time, energy and money.
“Is not a thing weh you earn money from go gi a bank and fi can afford this and that. Is a little better than minimum wage because you can take care of your family and you have little money inna the bank. Most of the time when you put money inna the bank you haffi take it back to put into the farm. So a so it go!”
Banks explained that 90 per cent of the farmers have been relocated already, but they were the ones with an original lease in their name. He, however, was given permission by his friend to farm the plot, an agreement which had been recognised by RADA and the other government entities but now he has no farm, no plans and without a relocation site, things are really looking dismal.
As we prepared to leave, I asked about the pumpkin plot overgrown by weeds and Banks stopped collecting pieces of irrigation pipe long enough to hiss his teeth and spit out this answer.
“Me not even a take care of it. The way me fed up, me naw badda do nutten more. Me just a clean and take up me irrigation pipe them. That is all.”