Twenty-five residents from the South Manchester Community Council and surrounding
communities participated weeks of training in Greenhouse Technology.
The training which was facilitated by the President of the Greenhouse Growers
Association of Jamaica, Jervis Rowe, sought to educate and expose the participants to
the essentials of greenhouse production. Among the subjects taught were greenhouse
climate, greenhouse construction, breeding and propagation, logistics and water
systems.
Each week, the trainees looked forward to attending the sessions and they were quite
excited about learning about the new way of cultivating their crops. The farmers have
indicated that some of the information learnt about greenhouse technology will be
transferred to open field farming as there are farming practices that they weren’t aware
of.
Secretary of the South Manchester Community Council Stefanne Latchman thanked
Jamalco and the Alcoa Foundation for reaching out to them and contributing the funds
to construct the two greenhouses for the area, as well as affording them the opportunity
to learn about greenhouse technology. “This will also go a far way in contributing to the
economic development of the area as residents will be employed to the project and the
money earned from the crops will assist in funding some of our community
development programmes,” Miss Latchman said.
As a part of the training, the team toured the Abbey Gardens Greenhouse Farm in
Manchester.