In the nerve centre of the Lakes Pen Agri-Ventures in Portmore, St Catherine, 21-year-old Theodore Adjmul pays keen attention to a computer screen from which he co-ordinates irrigation activities for the farm.

Here, a range of vegetables — from lettuce to cabbage, sweet peppers, kale, cilantro, tomatoes, pak choi, celery and various herbs — are grown in greenhouses, mesh houses and using hydroponics. Adjmul’s job is to oversee how much water and fertiliser goes to each and at what time. It’s a job the 21-year-old, St George’s College old boy relishes, but one he didn’t dream he would be doing.

While Adjmul now operates the computerised irrigation system at the multi-billion-dollar high-tech farm set up by businessman Gassan Azan and partners, his livelihood could have been so different in the last seven months had it not been for the pandemic.

Sudu Ramani, manager and CFO at Lakes Pen Agri-Ventures, recounted how he came to work on the farm.

“He was actually referred to me by someone I know and worked with. The person told me he was a bright kid and was out of a job, he used to work in a call centre, and asked if I have a position for him.” Adjmul at the time was at home with no salary from his call centre job in Portmore.

Adjmul added: “Seeing at that time the pandemic was there, [the call centre work] is pretty much a contract work, so you are off, and on, off and on, at the call centre. They say they need to reduce staff [because the contracts were impacted].”

Ramani said given that the farm was at the point of start-up, he decided to accede to the request of his colleague. “We always have positions for people who are bright, so I said, let me interview him. When we interviewed him, I realised that he didn’t have any experience in [working on a farm]. I [however] found him to be sharp and he was bright. Also the fact that he knew computers and was able to articulate,” Ramani said were some of the attributes which were considered in hiring Adjmul.

He continued: “We actually took him in inventory, because we needed somebody in the stores, to issue materials and things like that. The storekeeper we had, had just resigned a week back. So it was actually, very good timing. But once we saw him in the stores and we saw he was putting in systems on his own, creating some procedures and creating spreadsheets, then we realised that this kid was special. He was also coming and asking what else he could do. We realised that he was technical, he liked that kind of stuff. So when the control room started and the technician from Spain came, we decided that probably, Theo was the best person to understudy the technician, and that is how he went to the control room.”

The technicians from Spain were there to set up the automated growing houses for the vegetables and condiments. Included in the set up are two irrigation systems – fogging which is misting the plants in the greenhouse which also allows for the control of humidity and irrigation after mixing fertiliser and sending the water through the system to specific greenhouse, mesh house and hydroponics.

All that is done from the system monitored at Adjmul’s desk, building on his love for information technology, but now applying his knowledge and skills learnt through apprenticeship to the farm. He recalls, “From working in the containers, receiving and distributing tools. Then I went into inventory control as well. Whenever things come in. We buy cement, we buy gravel, we buy sand [to build out the infrastructure on the farm], and I was tasked with checking on those to ensure everything is in place.”

“So I actually work my way up here. Being that I am young and I am all about technology. Everything is a work in progress, everyday I learn and I like that. I don’t have any qualification for agriculture. I actually learn everything here, from how much nutrition should go into each plant, how much fertiliser for each specific plant, all those stuff.”

Ramani: “He is very responsible. One of the good things [is that] he thinks on his own, he doesn’t just follow instructions. So even, if things are happening and something that doesn’t sound right and doesn’t look right, he will actually bring it up and say, what is being done doesn’t seem like the right thing to do, and most times there is something wrong that needs to be fixed. So he thinks, he’s not a robot.”

For Adjmul, the job is like no other. Asked to compare working on the farm to working in a call centre he beamed.

“It’s actually amazing. In the call centre you are pretty multitasking. You are talking on the phone, socialising with people. Here, it’s more than that. People come, visit, every now and then. I keep meeting new people and good people as well. It’s more than even a call centre. I have three machines. Four fertiliser tanks. Two big tanks of water out there that can serve the farm for weeks. Thermal screens, the irrigation system, the fogging. I maintain all those stuff, ensuring all those stuff are working as they should. I create programmes for specific plants. Watering plans, fertilising plans, everything like that.”

“It’s very much enjoyable. It is practically numbers. I love the calculations. I love one plus one equal two. To be literal, that’s just me, its pretty much amazing. Being that this is the first system of its kind to be in Jamaica, and probably even the English-speaking Caribbean. I’m happy to be here.”

For Ramani, Adjmul has a bright future on the farm if he remains focused.

“The control room is a very critical function to all the greenhouses. As all the greenhouses come up and running, the control room is going to be very busy and he is going to be very, very busy. So, he will eventually move to a supervisory position, maybe not right away, because he’s working under [Fabio’s] instruction. But eventually, we expect him to reach a level where he will manage the control room on his own, including programming the computers [and] setting the nutrition levels. We want him to reach a point where the agronomist say, ‘Theo, we need more water and more fertiliser in the greenhouse’ and he’s able to programme it himself and set it up.”