Green Thumb - 19
Green Thumb - 19
Transcript
00:00 Green Thumb Tuesdays is brought to you courtesy the Agricultural Development Bank.
00:04 Growing stronger together.
00:05 Over an acre of land nestled in Kiwell Road, Manzanilla is
00:14 Niru Ramkissun's sweet pepper farm.
00:16 It's a very sensitive crop.
00:20 It's a difficult crop and sensitive crop.
00:22 Sensitive to rain, too much rainfall, sensitive to sun.
00:26 Sweet peppers is one of the more difficult crops to grow.
00:30 Despite challenges, Ramkissun remains spirited and determined.
00:34 For as long as he can remember, agriculture has always been a family tradition.
00:39 It's basically what we grew up doing.
00:42 My parents were farmers and weekends after school, she was in the garden.
00:48 So it's become our way of life.
00:49 Agriculture is not like a job or occupation, it's a passion.
00:52 But over time, Ramkissun shifted from old planting customs to new methods aimed at
00:58 safely improving his yields.
01:00 The only method I have implemented right now is a drip irrigation system where we use
01:05 this to fertilize the plant directly in the plant root.
01:08 No water wastage, no water, no chemical wastage.
01:13 It's cost efficient and time efficient.
01:15 You just set up a system and the plants water, get the food, nutrients as necessary
01:20 and cuts off and that's it.
01:22 It's a system he says has been critically important to his crops and harvests.
01:27 So the irrigation system that I use is a Venturi Masii system.
01:32 This hooks up to basically have a bucket of water, the chemical, concentrate and
01:38 water will pass through and suck the chemical, like a Venturi system and dilute
01:45 into the drip tapes.
01:48 With this system, I could use this roughly every five days.
01:52 You put different fertilizers at different stages.
01:55 Rather than have time wastage where you come in once every 14 days, just set up a system
01:59 manually, automatically start it up and manual labor, basically out the door.
02:05 But despite his best efforts and implementation of new methods to aid his farming,
02:10 Ramkissun is troubled by one thing, an issue which recently gripped world leaders.
02:17 Weather conditions.
02:19 This year the weather conditions are quite unpredictable and is a challenge that most
02:23 farmers are facing weather conditions.
02:26 One day flood, one day hot sun.
02:28 Weather conditions, probably the most difficult thing to deal with as a farmer.
02:32 Ramkissun lamented that intense weather conditions cause plants to undergo stress,
02:37 which consequently impacts their ability to produce.
02:40 He's hopeful that important and necessary changes to climate policies are made
02:46 swiftly so as to avoid a collapse of local and international agriculture sector.
02:52 Jassi Ram, the OCNC 3 News.
02:54 Green Thumb Tuesdays was brought to you courtesy the Agricultural Development Bank.
03:03 Growing stronger together.