By Claudia Gardner, Gleaner Writer 
Azaraae Morris tending to peppers on his Dundee Pen hillside farm in Hanover. - Claudia Gardner Photo
LUCEA, Hanover:
AT AGE 67, Azaraae Morris cultivates eight acres of land on the slopes of Dundee Pen, a rural community located four miles from Lucea in Hanover.
Mr. Morris, who began farming at the age of 18, says he has enjoyed this practice and that he would complete at least 50 years before considering retirement. "I will retire from farming when I am older; when I am old and can't do it anymore," he said smiling.
Sitting under a mango tree on his farm on Tuesday, he told Farmers Weekly how he began his career. "I went into farming as a young boy because I had to make a living and I had no other trade," he siad.
Mr. Morris cultivates five acres of sugar cane and grows dasheen, gungo peas, cucumber, yams, corn and scotch bonnet pepper on the remaining property. He sells his sugar cane to the West Indies Sugar Company (WISCO).
Mr. Morris, a true businessman who has secured several markets to ensure the viability of his practice, has in recent times adopted simple irrigation strategies to deal with the drought in Hanover. Early every morning, he fetches water from a standpipe in his community as well as from a nearby spring.
He said that the agricultural sector is the most important industry in any society. "Agriculture is number one," he said.
