IWD 2021: ‘I challenge just for the love of my children!’

DONNING mud-caked trousers and a pair of solid black goulashes with cutlass in hand, Govinda Fisher had the air of a woman who was determined to carry her weight in life. Behind the 36-year-old’s farm-clad attire, however, was an upbeat and spirited mother of three, whose love for the land and dedication to food cultivation has brought significant improvement to the lives and livelihoods of fellow farmers at the Spring Plain Agro Park in Toll Gate, Clarendon.

“I always say the ‘Go’ in my name Govinda stands for go-getter. Once you hear the name, you know whatever it is I put my mind to, I am going for it,” was Fisher’s jovial pronouncement to All Woman during a tour of her eight-acre plot on the Government-run farmlands in the parish.

“Doing farming comes with a lot of downturns, but I always say without challenges, life is boring.”

This is a personal adage that has been at the forefront of the Clarendon native’s MO (modus-operandi) in life, from boldly leaving her first ‘serious’ job as a sales representative at Island Dairies, to taking on the little-known rigmarole bureaucracy of the agricultural sector.

“To find a piece of land to farm was very hectic, especially as an upcoming farmer who didn’t have the amount of funds to go into large-scale farming. At first, myself and some other farmers in the area were illegally farming on this land. In 2018 we were told to cease operation and evacuate because the Government wanted the land to use.

“I can’t forget because it was one of those situations that was really a challenge for me. But I like a little challenge. So when I heard I began going up and down, meeting with persons in the agriculture sector.

Determined to find a solution to a looming setback, Fisher pleaded her cause and that of the other farmers to park supervisors at Agriculture Investment Commission (AIC), the agri-business facilitation arm of the Government of Jamaica’s Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries that is responsible for stimulating, facilitating and developing agriculture.

“I gathered all the farmers and they decided to regularise us. It was settled, and from there on we have been working with the process.”

Her advocacy notwithstanding, Fisher’s garnered respect and goodwill among neighbouring farmers and overseers at the agro park was hard-earned. Being a woman in a male-dominated endeavour came with its psychological challenges, or rather, mere annoyances as she puts it.

“Not everybody gave me a welcoming face, but as a young woman surrounded by mostly men, they would say things like, ‘Give it try but you won’t stay for long,’ or things like ‘Pressure soon reach you,’ or they used to say, ‘You’re so beautiful, go back home and get married and start a family.’

“It was how they would belittle me. All I would hear is that I need to get married. That was so annoying because they see a woman and all they can say is that you must stay home and get married and have children. Many of my relatives and friends still say that to me even now.

“I decided that I was going to prove everybody wrong. Well, here I am now!”

Fisher’s fierce determination to go after what she wants in life began, she says, from her early years growing up in Raymond’s district in Hayes, Clarendon, where she was raised under the tutelage of a doting father and a mother whose long absences due to frequent travelling made her into a business-minded teenager.

Following in the footsteps of self-employed parents, as well as grandparents, who also had made a living off the land, made Fisher an astute businesswoman from as early as age 15.

“At home I started to do my backyard farming. It was very easy because I loved it. This was just a lot of fun for me. The fun of doing my own little farming and reaping my crops and going through the community and selling was so nice.

“I planted tomatoes, scallions and peppers, and I used to rear pigs as well. I was only about 15 years old and I was farming and saving my money from it. Every Friday I was going to the bank to lodge something and seeing my account getting fat was so sweet.

Ironically enough, Fisher’s love for farming has not been met with much approval from her parents who, she says, would rather see her ‘try something different’.

“I didn’t get the love of farming from my parents. In fact, my mother used to tell me that I’m wasting time. Even to this day she is not with it. My father tells me whatever my dream is he will support me, but he has also said that I should try doing something else.”

High school was really where it all started for Fisher, when she made up her mind that farming was what she wanted to do.

“I was doing agriculture in high school and I began to find the love and passion for farming. After leaving high school, I always wanted to learn more. I began to do my research because I realised while doing other kinds of work that I didn’t find the love in it. My very first job was in a wholesale and that was very hard. Leaving there, I was working at a pastry shop. I even did a little gas station work and I didn’t find the passion in it.

“Eventually, I left from there and went to Island Dairies where I worked as a sales representative for one year. I was just 24 years old when I left that job, my first serious job. I was just bored with it. At the time, everybody was asking me why I left and I was just like, ‘I’m bored. I’m just bored of it.’ I wanted something that was more challenging and exciting.”

And, so far, farming seems to have stood the test.

Having launched out on her own and at a scale for which Fisher admits she was not adequately prepared, the task has been fraught with many a challenge, and has come with its own kind of excitement.

“Starting out was so sticky and stressful. I’m talking about leaving all the way from Hayes, and taking about four different transportation to come all the way here. The very first piece of land that I cleaned, with the help of two fellows in the area, was a two-acre plot.

“I knew very little about this side, but it was a friend of mine who [told me] that there was some land in Clarendon that the Government turned into farmlands, and I jumped at the opportunity. I took the chance as a female to come down here and try to navigate the area; I met one and two other farmers and told them that I was interested in the farming.”

All those years of saving allowed Fisher to start off with one acre of callaloo, which failed.

“There was so much I needed to know,” she said. “I wasn’t having worm problems with my callaloo, but I was having ‘borer’ problems, which are little bugs that bore holes in the leaves. But after losing that first crop I was like, what else? I was not deterred.

“I decided to do one acre of okra, and no lie, it was challenging. I had to keep the one acre clean all by myself. I didn’t have any help at the time, but I did my best.”

Fisher described the outcome, this time around, as ‘booming’.

“At the time I started to reap, the other farmers’ fields were down, so the demand was there for it, and I can’t forget, I sold it at $80 out of the field. Normally you reap three times per week Monday, Wednesday and Friday. But that crop, because it was virgin soil and the demand was there, I was reaping right through the week, Monday to Friday.

“It was so successful that I decided to try other crops. I decided to try Irish potato. The yields from that crop weren’t so good, and I couldn’t get it to market so that [was] another loss. But, with each challenge I learnt, because without challenges you don’t know what you can or cannot do.”

Having the technical support from officers at the Rural Agriculture Development Authority and AIC, Fisher says she is now on much better footing.

“At this moment, I am looking to put in a half-acre of sweet potatoes. I have some sweet peppers and tomatoes in nursery ready to go into the field. From here on out, I am looking to see how I can get set up in exporting, as well as selling to the hotel industry, and even selling to local higglers, because I am all about feeding the nation.”

In her eighth year of tilling the soil for a living, the task has come with myriad challenges, Fisher admits, but insists that it has also anchored her through difficult times, the most recent of which was an invasion of gunmen at her home just weeks ago as she was preparing to have dinner with her two young daughters, one seven years old, and a baby, only 10 months old.

“It was shocking, because as I said, it’s just me and my children live. They turned the place upside down and helped themselves to whatever they wanted and left. I must give thanks that they left us alive, but the idea of not being able to defend myself was hurtful. But I have to be strong for my babies. It was the first they were seeing something like this, and I don’t want to dampen their growth or cripple them in any way at all.

She added: “So as a woman again, I have to know how to manage these things just for my children’s sake. So right, now, I don’t leave them anywhere, especially now during COVID, they are always with me. If I am going through the field they will be somewhere close by where I can see them. My older daughter will do her online lessons and when she breaks, she comes in the field and does her little thing too. If she finds two seeds, she plants them.”

Sharing her thoughts on the #ChoosetoChallenge theme for International Women’s Day, which dares women to challenge boundaries delineated by gender, the single mother gave the simple response for her choice of challenging the boundaries in her own sphere.

“Doing farming and being a single mother has just become the norm for me. I challenge just for the love of my children,” she said.

“Some men, when they see me doing what I do, they encourage me and say that they like my outlook, and that I don’t stay in my comfort zone. But I always tell them, I have stepped out and challenged myself because I have my daughters to be an example for. I want to show them that no matter what others say, don’t think of yourself as less worthy because you are a female. I am here as their example to show them that I am a female and whatever I want, I am going for it.”