St Catherine senior in love with farming

Rommell Newell is very active for 75 years old. The Planters Hall, St Catherine resident has been farming most of his life, and he has no intentions of slowing down. Newell says that his niche crops comprise cassava, gungo peas, peanuts and yam. He also rears livestock.

"I have being doing farming for more than 50 years, and feel good. So don't let nobody tell you that you are old. I know that age is just a number, but you must treat your body right, as it nuh easy," Newell said.

To strengthen his body, the one-time cattle farmer said proper nutrition is crucial. He demonstrated how to properly reap yam and painstakingly used his machete to dig and unearth a tuber estimated to weigh about 20 pounds.

"I plant and reap with a smile and I don't allow the work to get to me. Sometimes mi dig yam weighing all 30 pounds. I do farming and it helps to take care of my five children, although a 10 children mi did want still," Newell said.

He said that his wife Hermina, 63, assists him as well.

"You see the wife, she is the mother of four of the children dem. You see how she carry the gungo pon her head? Is so we work like a team," Newell said. He said that he was registered with the Rural Agriculture Development Authority decades ago, but has kept low-key in recent years.

"Mi usually raise a whole lot of cows but, as a get older and di children gone, mi just deal mostly in the planting of crops we can manage," Newell said. He showed the news team rabbits and pigs which he raises for domestic purposes.

"The rabbit is expensive, I can even get $1,000 per pound. But dem ya about a pound each, so me eat dem and it nice when curry," he said. While he does not have a market for rabbits, he said he would sell a pair for $6,000.

Hermina was now seated on her verandah with a bucket laden with gungo. Her hands were going at full throttle with the shelling of the gungo, a skill she said is a gift.

It was the consensus that the youth could easily be drawn to farming, but the Government must help to make the sector viable to attract them.