PORT MARIA, St Mary — It was supposed to be her biggest harvest ever — the culmination of working alone in the sun and rain. But one finger of plantain on the ground was all that remained on Marie Hart’s Annotto Bay farm after thieves made off with more than 15 bunches of the fruit, leaving her devastated.

In an almost seven-minute-long video on Tik Tok, the 34-year-old tearfully showed the empty trees, emotions ranging from tearful disbelief to anger.

“Mi a woman. Mi nuh beg, and mi work hard fi wah me want. And imagine, a so di man dem come and go right through di farm? A so dem do mi plantain dem? Tell mi now, wah di hell mi fi do now?” Hart raged in the video.

“Di man dem go through the farm and dem cut out di whole a mi plantain dem!” she cried.

Hart went into farming three years ago, determined to make a better life.

“I was working as a bartender and then on a farm, but it still was not enough to take care of the bills,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

Hart began buying and selling ground provisions for resale at the market. She had a genuine love for agriculture so she started a backyard garden. The fact that she has a green thumb was a big bonus. In the beginning her harvest was not enough to sell at the market but enough to sell to her neighbours.

Then Hart decided to go bigger.

“Seeing that, I sought out to get a piece of land. I kept asking around, but nothing was forthcoming. God was good to me. A friend of mine who I approached said he knew someone who had a piece of land that he could give me,” she said.

The industrious mother of two got more than five acres and never looked back.

“I plant bananas, plantains, and pine,” Hart said with pride.

Every day she would make the three-mile trek on a rough road from her house to her farm. She said she was unable to get anyone to help, even when she offered to pay. She worked alone, spurred on by the thought that she would be rewarded with a healthy harvest.

But thieves beat her to it.

“Mi hurt and disappointed as is lots of money and time I put into it. With no help! It’s me alone clear [the land], plough and plant. Can’t get anyone to work, and to see how dem do mi farm. Mi belly bottom hurt mi like mi just lose a baby,” she said, clearly in agony.

Hart has reported the matter to the police’s Praedial Larceny Unit, and is grateful for the fertiliser provided by Rural Agriculture Development Authority as the State entity moves to help her rebuild.

She has decided that failure is not an option. The tearful rage and vow of vengeance seen on the
Tik Tok video have been replaced by a calm resolve.

“Mi not giving up. This year mi going harder,” she told the Sunday Observer with a broad smile.

Farmer Marie Hart shares the story of how thieves stripped her farm bare of plantains.