FOR many who know her, it came as no surprise earlier last month when Marie Azan was declared the National Champion Farmer for 2007 at the Denbigh Agricultural Show in Clarendon.

After all, despite her small stature, Azan is an ordinary Jamaican woman committed to doing extraordinary things. A recent trip by the Sunday Observer to the 365-acre farm she shares with her husband, Adeeb (who was busy at work on the farm when we visited) in Riversdale, St Catherine, proved why the property has been bestowed with so many accolades over the years.

At the same time, looking around, you would think that Hurricane Dean bypassed this area of St Catherine entirely, as only a few trees on the grounds were troubled by the strong winds and the power generator which shut down during a lightning storm.

Sitting calmly on her verandah overlooking the extensive property, Azan is a picture of confidence and joy, as she openly declares her love for farming.

“I think I fell in love with farming through my husband. There is so much more to it than just ploughing the land and raising cows and chickens. Farming has to be run as a business.

Even the smallest farmer has to bear that in mind,” said Azan, who gave up her job as credit controller at Carreras in Spanish Town to go into farming with her husband back in the late 1970s. “When we first bought the land, there was nothing but bush and hillside. But we worked hard over the years to get it to where it is today.”

And she couldn’t be prouder of the result. Today, the large farm (Azan Farms Limited) houses three large chicken houses, goat pens, citrus lands, cow milking and feeding facilities and a host of other structures. The Rio del Oro, a tributary of the Rio Cobre, also flows through the centre of the farm.

Like a proud mother, Azan has watched the farm bloom from nothing, into something amazing within 20 years.

“We went through rough times when we were starting out. There have been frustrations and struggles but our ability to recover is what has helped us over the years. Gilbert affected us terribly and it took us a long time to recover. We also had losses during Ivan. With Dean recently, we were spared the worst. There was no flooding or structural damage only power failure that affected the milking and the chicken feeding,” Azan disclosed.

For other farmers, such “intrusions” might be tallied up as huge setbacks, but for Azan, they are mere obstacles to overcome as she and her husband try to make life work.

“The life of a farmer is filled with normal problems. But I have a working relationship with my husband that has worked well over the years,” Azan said.

The relationship has worked so well, that over the years, the farm has won numerous awards from the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) and the Rural Agricultural Development Agency (RADA).

As she takes us on a tour of the property in her pick-up truck, we drive past towering coconut trees, fields of oranges, ackee and pear trees, other types of vegetation, chicken sheds, stables, goats resting in their pens, dozens of cows having a drink by the river, several concrete structures, tractors and other equipment and men busy at work.

With a staff of nearly 20 [including one female], the Azans are able to keep the farm in top shape throughout the year. She teases and jokes with several of her employees, including Sam, who explains that, at present, each of the three chicken houses [500 feet long and 40 feet wide] contains roughly 30,000 young chickens which are reared at the facility for up to six weeks before they are ready for use.

From all indications, Azan shares a charming rapport with her workers, which includes animal rearers, bush cutters, cleaners and drivers. Several of them are provided with free living accommodation at a farm house on the property and are paid weekly salaries. She had high praises for the workers.

“They are stalwarts. Some of them have been here for almost 20 years. Right now, we have about 17 regulars but that number can go up to 30 at times. I am considering having a long-standing awards ceremony for them. Some of them live in the area but others are from nearby districts,” Azan told the Sunday Observer.

Azan Farms Limited, we are told, is contracted to supply milk and chickens, and sells citrus, coconuts and other provisions to higglers and other customers.

“We have had two weddings here and we recently acquired an additional 14 acres,” Azan says as we make our way over to a building where the cows are milked and artificial insemination sometimes carried out.

Even though praedial larceny has been a problem for the hardworking couple, Azan says they have learnt to count their blessings and their successes, especially the acclaim bestowed on the property as the champion farm for 2007. Back in 2001, her husband took home a similar prize for the farm.

“It is based on an assessment of the standard that he has been able to maintain over the years. As a farm, you have to maintain a certain standard in order to qualify for loans and be able to repay those loans,”

Azan explained, adding that at the end of the day, she considers awards as recognition for a job well done.

“Honestly, the awards are just recognition for maintaining the standard we have established over the years. Moreover, there are various aspects to farming, not just the physical. It takes proper management to keep the farm up-to-date.”

But Azan wants to do more. That’s why in recent times, she has granted requests from several educational institutions to facilitate tours for students who are eager to learn about agriculture and the farming process, in particular.

“With a property like this, you can do educational farm tours for schools. People have called and asked and we have done a few tours already. The students come and spend the day and they are very interested in what goes on here,” said Azan, an alumna of Immaculate Conception High. “We have talk sessions where they get prizes for what they remember from the tour.”

Although she and her husband are “old-school” farmers, Azan says in the coming months and years, she would like to adopt some of the newer technologies that farms across the globe have begun using.

“If the farm continues to develop, there are a lot of things we would like to try differently and maybe add a few more chicken houses. More modern techniques like the use of hydroponics and self-processing machinery would further enhance the property,” Azan remarked. “Although modern technology is good, as farmers we have to be careful that we don’t move too far away from God’s original.”

But, as she is quick to point out, she and her husband will soon be entering their ‘golden years’ and, as such, much of the new development will fall squarely in the laps of their sons.

“Two of my sons who are abroad have indicated that after they are finished with their studies, they would like to come back and help with the property. My husband and I are basically at retirement age, so, hopefully, they will be the ones to one day oversee the property,” says Azan, a mother of four sons and grandmother to seven.

And as we head back to the main house for refreshing glasses of coconut water, Azan tells the Sunday Observer that she has had no regrets since the day she decided to share in her husband’s dream of establishing a farm and journeyed with him from Kingston, where she grew up, to St Catherine’s Riversdale valley.

“I just want to encourage the farmers out there to just keep working hard because the country needs them. Farming is an honourable occupation and farmers ought to be respected because if farmers don’t farm, we don’t eat. Everything comes out of the ground,” she says with a hearty laugh, clearly enjoying the here and now and all its possibilities.