Big boost for Treadlight Farm

Dwight Lawrence was among 14 small business owners in Treadlight, Clarendon, to have benefited from a $2.2-million equipment support to enhance their businesses, courtesy of the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF).

The initiative was facilitated under the Integrated Community Development Project II (ICDP-II).

Omar Sweeney, JSIF's manging director, told THE STAR at the handover ceremony on Friday that the COVID-19 pandemic underscored the need to invest in small businesses.

"One of the things that came with COVID is that as we were in communities, we realised that small business operators were suffering and that can only lead to a number of things, and that's when we envisioned this programme," said Sweeney.

Lawrence, 44, proprietor of Treadlight Farm, who received water tanks, water pressure pumps, a weed whacker, drip hoses and a mist sprayer, described the donation as a "big boost" to his business. He said the equipment will improve irrigation activities on his 3 1/2-acre farm, citing water woes in Treadlight.

Starving for water

"I don't believe we should be starving for water. We might get water two times per week, so we have to have a lot of storage for water, so with JSIF coming on board it couldn't come at a better time, " he beamed.

Speaking on his decision to venture into farming, Lawrence shared, "COVID has taught us a lot. When I was going to school, agriculture was the least, no one wanted to do agriculture. And after leaving Jamaica, I learned a lot, knowing that the only way a country can progress is through agriculture; and I want to be a part of that development," he said.

With only a community-based market, Lawrence has big dreams of supplying people outside of Treadlight with the sweet potatoes, pumpkins, tomatoes and peppers he now produces.