ACRUTCH firmly under one arm and a crocus bag over his shoulder, 75-year-old Lloyd Smith limps along the Enfield main road, careful to avoid the potholes, on the way to his farm in the community.

    He lives in the sleepy seaside town of Annotto Bay – some eight miles away – but like many of his neighbours, has been forced to lease plots inland. The trip to Enfield costs $200, an amount the senior citizen can’t always afford. On those days, he gets a ride to the entrance of the community and treks it to his farm.

    Up to ten years ago, life was much easier for Smith who operated a thriving grocery shop in the town square. Then, the booming banana sector fed the economy and hundreds would converge on payday in the St Mary South Eastern constituency. Some would pay for items credited during the previous fortnight while others refreshed themselves in the many bars dotting the town.

    But after the banana fallout, scores of persons lost their jobs and some businesses could no longer keep their shutters up. Even vendors who journeyed from Kingston to peddle their wares in Annotto Bay had to relocate.

    “Me used to be a businessman with mi shop,” says Smith, as he eases the weight from his shoulder to the ground. A pained look crosses his face as he speaks of closing his doors when sales dropped.

    “Annotto Bay not Annotto Bay anymore,” he says, shaking his head.

    Residents believe the town’s demise is a result of lack of development, massive job loss from the banana sector and crime which now features significantly in this rural town.

    “We want development in Annotto Bay and we want to see some factory or some other kind of work for us to do,” says one resident.

    The Jamaica Producers Group, operators of a banana chips factory in the constituency, and the only mass employer in the area, cannot do enough to shorten the unemployment line.

    “Sale reduce now because as it ketch 6:00 pm the whole town lock down because the criminals them plaguing the business people,” says one resident.

    Those who venture into small-scale farming must find lands on the outskirts of the town, a situation which results in them dishing out hundreds of dollars every week just to get to their fields.

    “Me used to go to mi field every day but it get too costly now to take taxi so me can’t go so often,” Smith tells the Sunday Observer.

    Working miles from home means he must also pack lunch but even that is a challenge for the diabetic farmer who lost his leg in a motorcycle accident a few years ago.

    Some days, like last Tuesday when we met him limping along the road in the heat of the mid-morning sun, Smith had only a bottle of water to quench his thirst.

    He had hoped to have been able to “take it easy” but with school-aged children to support, and a wife who is unemployed, he continues to farm cocoa, coconut, banana and plantain, among other crops.

    “Because me sickly, farming is very hard and me should give it up but things didn’t work out for me the way I wanted it to,” he says, before taking up his crocus bag and limping off to another hard day’s work.

    It is the middle of the work week but when we arrive in Enfield, we see groups of young men and women sitting by the roadside, an indication of the high rate of unemployment in the area. Many of them do not have skills and harbour no hope of finding a job.

    In addition to that, residents who remember Enfield as a peaceful community cannot help but bemoan its rising crime rate. Several people have been gunned down in recent months, forcing others to flee.

    Zephaniah Holmes, an 87-year-old man who was born in the community, recalls that as a youngster people would walk from Enfield to Kingston – a distance of more than 20 miles.

    “Now people can’t even walk from them yard to church,” he says, adding, “no government can help, is only God”.

    A bumpy ride on yet another potholed riddled road takes the Sunday Observer team to the Atomic Force disco and nightclub in Junior Pen.

    Proprietor Franklyn Willis, who also operates a grocery shop, is relaxing at the front since there are no customers in sight.

    “Things have gotten very slow,” Willis says.

    The club, which he inherited from his father, no longer attracts the type of support it used to since, with the cut in banana production, disposable income has all but dried up. Willis said the constituency needs a factory now that banana and cane are no longer thriving.

    Residents of Junior Pen also want to see the condition of their roads and water supply improved.

    “Nuff time we haffi wake up all 12 o’clock a night just to catch up water,” one resident says.

    At the other end of the constituency, in the Belfield community, residents have similar problems and are demanding to see Member of Parliament Tarn Peralto to voice concerns over bad roads and a lack of skills training and employment opportunities. They also intend to point to the inconvenience and added expense they are incurring as a result of the destruction of the Westmoreland bridge which was washed out last year during Tropical Storm Gustav.

    The residents say the lack of a bridge linking that community to Junction not only lengthens the journey to Annotto Bay, but now costs $500 both ways, up from $320. This has further contributed to the downturn in business in Annotto Bay since many find it cheaper to travel to Kingston instead.

    “Is $300 to go Kingston and $500 go Annotto Bay so most people go Kingston instead,” explains Joyce Shaw.

    Some residents of Belfield, like several others in the constituency, say they have hardly seen the MP since 2007 when he was seeking the nod of the 21,000 registered voters.

    “From him win him nuh business with we and there are no jobs and young people just on the streets having babies and getting into contention,” says Shaw.

    Pointing to her sparsely packed shelves, shop operator Yvonne Murray says, “Nothing nah gwaan with business anymore. Is a lucky thing me nah pay rent cause me woulda have to close it down by this.”

    Belfield residents say they are also in need of a community centre and a recreational area as all meetings and sporting activities are currently held at the Belfield Primary School.

    At another section of the constituency, off the Junction road, is the community of Flinch River with an estimated population of 40,000.

    Sherine Jones had just walked across the dry river bed to the main road. But when it rains this becomes dangerous since she and other residents are forced to wade through the river to get to the main road.

    With no bridge access to the community, those residents who have not moved out are often marooned in their homes when the river is in spate.

    “Is good flat lands over there so if the bridge go up more people would come back to claim their lands,” Jones says.

    Further down the road is Scott’s Hall, another community off the Junction road. There too, residents bemoan the condition of the road but that’s not their only concern. They want innovative income-generating solutions to engage young people.

    Some suggestions they give are the building of an agroprocessing plant, better marketing of Castleton Botanical Gardens and the development of the ice-cold springs in Junction.