SWIFT RIVER, Portland —The United Farmers of Swift River in the parish have come up with the idea of using a compost drum to aid in the disposal of garbage in their area. From the use of this compost drum the farmers are also able to produce fertiliser for their varied crops.

The farmers plan to expand on this and believe that Jamaica can do much better with garbage disposal.

Peace Corps volunteer, Stephen Crimarco, who works directly the Portland farmers, says he is very encouraged with the work being done by the United Farmers of Swift River, especially their care for and protection of the environment.

“This group is one of the most organised and dynamic groups of all those I have visited across the island.

“This group believes in the environment and they do things to protect it. They are already planting trees on hillsides in a climate-smart way, not just ramming them in the ground; and now they are composting their garbage, because some 60 per cent of waste in Jamaica is actually organic material and 40 per cent is solid. This composting process is encouraged to cut down on waste and farmers can reuse the waste.

“When I introduced the compost drum, the farmers were interested and wanted to learn more about the process involved. Using the compost drum was a change in direction for them as they had wanted to build compost heaps,” Crimarco said.

The Peace Corps volunteer then explained the advantages of using a compost drum.

“The way it works is that normally when you do your compost in a pile, you have to aerate it, which means you turn it up and down using a fork. but this can become very tiring if the pile is large and very tedious, but having it in a drum with an axle you can just spin it and it becomes very easy to aerate,” he explained.

Morris Dunbar, a member of the Swift River group is enthused with the progress they have been making.

“I have learnt a lot about farming from this group — for example, how to build the basins to plant fruit trees,

landscaping, taking care of the environment, controlling hillside water by using gully plugs or gully basins to break the fall and prevent erosion, and the planting of different types of trees to hold the soil and allow the water to run off,” he shared.

Leader Headley Wilson also spoke about the changes and their effects.

“The recent heavy rains affected us, but we have started to pick up. We are reaping peppers (scotch bonnet, sweet, chilli), cucumbers, cabbage, tomatoes and other vegetables. And for a group which do not use chemicals and fertilizers, we face a lot of pests, but we have been doing some experimenting.

“We use pepper as an insecticide to spray the fields to see if we can come up with something that is natural.

“The compost drum is ready and everybody likes it because it is a natural thing, and we are getting ready to go to the Denbigh Agricultural Show to show our compost tumble to Jamaica and the world that there is a way you can produce your own fertiliser, which is natural and good for your health. We are going to see if we can use it as an earning business for the United Farmers group,” he said.