Green Thumb - 2
Green Thumb - 2
Transcript
00:00 While Olmert Donald may just be a fictional news rhyme character, it's the reality facing
00:09 this country's aging farming population, as information suggests that only about 35 percent
00:15 of today's farmers fall in the youth category.
00:18 But hoping to inject youth in the field is Rodley Edwards.
00:22 Tucked a short distance away from his field road home in Santa Flora are several acres
00:26 of citrus and vegetables the 31-year-old relies on for his income.
00:31 Rodley says misinformation peddled about the sector has created a generational gap.
00:36 Agriculture, in most people's minds, hard work.
00:41 Labor holding the hot sun and pressure with all kinds of prices and those kinds of things.
00:47 But when you look at it, in the world today, we're moving away from labor-intensive systems
00:52 to more mechanized, computerized systems.
00:55 So agriculture getting easier.
00:57 The International Relations Ure graduate says people continue to turn a blind eye to farming
01:02 as a career choice, failing to recognize its value.
01:06 If you're coming into agriculture for the money, then it would seem difficult because
01:11 the money would come, but it would take some time as in any business to face a contractor.
01:17 If you build a building to rent, the money can come for years.
01:22 But agriculture is sustainable and apart from feeding others, you're feeding your family
01:27 and it's a noble profession.
01:31 While agriculture seems second nature to Rodley, it was the loss of his job following the closure
01:35 of Petritrin which opened his eyes to the largely untapped industry.
01:40 I was working shifts.
01:41 When I was home every night to my family, my children seeing me, I'm moving on my own
01:46 time.
01:47 Rodley has already mapped out ways to improve his yield through the introduction of technology.
01:51 However, he said more can be done to make the sector more appealing.
01:56 Financing would be the biggest part.
01:58 Well, not for me, but for other young farmers.
02:01 Land, access to land.
02:02 There are no farmers who want land but they can't access land.
02:06 So money, land.
02:09 Then we have markets.
02:10 I mean, we have markets, but being a, I would say a modern thinker.
02:16 I born in '89.
02:18 So we are modern people.
02:20 We think in modern.
02:21 Being a modern farmer, I think that would be as easy as other businesses to get your
02:26 good soul, but it's a little more difficult.
02:29 For Rodley, bridging the existing generational gap in the sector is critical now more than
02:34 ever.
02:35 We don't have enough food here to feed everybody.
02:37 So if more people come into farming, we would be able to feed others.
02:41 And as we as youths coming up farming, we could modernize the way we farm using less
02:48 labor, more machinery, more technology and make farming more attractive.
02:53 Jesse Ramdeo, CNC3 News.
03:02 (upbeat music)