JOE HUT, Trelawny — South Trelawny’s Joe Hut community is one of Jamaica’s happiest following the crowning of 56-year-old farmer Merele Frater as parish champion at last Wednesday’s 55th staging of the Hague Agricultural Show.

With four perfectly cultivated acres of yellow yam, Frater trumped a field of six farmers to bring home the community’s first major agricultural trophy.

Her fellow resident, 64-year-old Leslie Graham, came in second with his vegetable produce.

Frater, who hails from a family with generations in farming, impressed the judges from the Rural Agricultural Development Agency in the areas of layout, tools, crop efficiency, market, and capital among other areas.

She was full of gratitude to the Jamaica Agricultural Society for recognising her yeoman contribution to the sector and is hoping her win will inspire more people to brave the challenges and enter the field.

“Me grow inna it (farming). I am from generations of farmers. From an early age my grandmother introduced us to farming. My daughter (Sharna Frater) now works with the Ministry of Agriculture so I consider this a honour to be reccognised by the Hague Agricultural Show,” a beaming Frater told the Observer West.

Noting that farming supplies the nation with food and is the backbone of the economy of Southern Trelawny, she lamented what she deemed the low esteem in which farmers from Joe Hut in particular, and “upper” Trelawny in general, are held by the nation.

“Not enough recognition is paid to farmers who feed the whole nation and bring in valuable foreign currency from the export of food,” said Frater. “We want greater status for the farmers of Trelawny. We always hear that St Elizabeth is the bread basket, but in my opinion is south Trelawny produce the most food in Jamaica and we are not recognised enough.”

Frater, who is also a nurse aid at the Wait-A-Bit Health Clinic, says to be a female farmer is an uphill task for her as she is unable to carry out the physical demands and has to employ expensive farm hands.

“Very difficult for me as a woman because me can’t even plough the soil. I am only able to wrap yam vines around the sticks and cook for the workers. I have to pay for labour,” the Joe Hut female explained. “I am not able to be in the field most of the time so I have to big up Danny, Tabby, Kevin, and Jenton.”

Other major challenges listed by Frater included perennial praedial larceny, bad roads and shortage of markets which result in gluts and plummets food prices.

Nevertheless, she is hopeful that things will change now that there’s a $16-million yam packaging plant in neighbouring Wait-A-Bit which is projected to initially export 40,000 pounds to the USA fortnightly, and 15,000 pounds to the UK.

“We only sell to higglers, and when there is a glut on the market you cannot get a good price for your food. At times, we get only $2,500 per 100 pound which is 140 pounds or more. But I welcome the new yam plant in Wait-A-Bit.”

Despite the many challenges, Frater is bent on expanding her farm each year, noting that she has no intention of selling any of her ever increasing stock of yam heads.

She is encouraging “the younger generation” to get involved in farming which she says can be a lucrative business, especially if “authorities establish more institutions to educate more persons in the art of farming”.