CLARENDON farmer Wayne Kelly says the Government should provide more subsidies for animal feeds, chemicals and fertilisers to reduce the expenses faced when growing crops and rearing animals.

“It is too expensive for farmers. For half of the year we would have a flood or a drought and some farmers don’t even know how to start over again. Farmers are very important but farmers are barely recognised,” Kelly told the Jamaica Observer during a visit to his farm at the Ebony Park Agro-Park in Clarendon, on Tuesday.

Kelly, 60, who has been in farming for 10 years, and plants melons, cucumbers and sweet potatoes on 15 acres of land, said farmers just recently started get some recognition due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the country.

“Farmers are very important but barely recognised. The coronavirus pandemic made people recognise us. Just imagine if we were not producing during the pandemic. The Government just needs to invest more into farmers [as] the farmers are the backbone of any country,” said Kelly.

He said heavy rains in October damaged 75 per cent of his crops, which put a dent in sales for the Christmas period.

“It (rains) really put a hold on everything. It slowed down the farming [and] this year there was no real Christmas,” he said. The novel coronavirus, he added, made Christmas really the worst one.

But, despite the challenges, Kelly said that progress is taking place as he supplies produce to the Caribbean Broilers’ farms in St Catherine.

“It has been fairly good but, of course, it has its ups and downs. I was down on the ground and now things are starting to pick up. Most of the time we plant underground crops and you cannot sell what you don’t reap,” he said.

Kelly, meanwhile, plans to plant sweet corn and broccoli in 2021 and is encouraging youngsters to be more involved in agriculture.

“It should be a better year than 2020, which was not a good year at all. I would leave from this year and head straight to 2022.Young people do not want to do farming as nobody wants to lose. If you tell a youngster who has $200,000 to do farming that he has to lose before he gains, it doesn’t work out. But i think it is the safest job as we have to eat and we need to eat what we grow and grow what we eat.”