Joan Buchanan on her small farm that has a variety of crops, including banana, plantain, ackee, breadfruit, apples and vegetables. - Contributed

The taste of delicious, cooked food on our plate is about as close as most Jamaican women get to the farm. But 53-year-old female farmer, Joan Buchanan, feels the rich St Thomas soil in her hands and the warm sun on her back every day. She enjoys the sight of produce long before it reaches the table.

Farming is not a career that most women would take up, especially when they are as cash-strapped as Buchanan, and cannot afford to pay for permanent help with labour.

But, the feel of the fork in her hands and the sight of healthy vegetables spreading their leaves in the Trinityville soil is elixir to this woman.

Cash and staple crop farming

Buchanan, who says she has been a farmer for 'a good amount of years', is continuing the tradition of her father Spurgeon Mason, who farmed coconut, chocolate, banana and cattle in Trinityville, St Thomas. Unlike him, however, she has chosen to do cash and staple crop farming.

On her small farm, there are banana, plantain, ackee, breadfruit, apples and vegetables like sweet pepper, scallion, carrot, tomatoes, pak choi and callaloo.

When the rain falls with restraint, and the crops are bountiful, life is sweet. But the reality is that life as a small farmer is hard, she admits.

Hurricane Dean in 2007, she says, "really gave me a beating. Until now I can't stand upon my two feet."

Small loan

Fortunately, she was given a small loan by the Women's Resource and Outreach Centre (WROC), located at 47 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston which provides assistance to small female farmers as a part of their sustainable livelihood programme.

"WROC help me with a small loan which really help after the storm. They have also provided seeds tools, hose, etc," Buchanan said.

Other forms of assistance provided by WROC - which celebrated 25 years of working with women and their families on March 8, International Women's Day - includes, help to chicken farmers in other areas of the parish and the construction of model poultry rearing and processing units. WROC is also running a roofing project intended to mitigate the effects of future hurricanes.

Farming really takes money, states Buchanan. "We need money to clean up and for chemicals (fertiliser). It is back-breaking but I work early in the morning."

Paulette Pinnock is one of the farmers who have benefited with assistance from the Women's Resource and Outreach Centre.