Lisa Hinkson, active member of the Barbados Agricultural Society, Barbados Sheep and Goat Association and Women in Agriculture.
One local agricultural expert is advising farmers to take precautionary steps in their livestock raising and crop production, in order to deal with reoccurring and soon to be increased drought levels on the island.
This comes from Lisa Hinkson, active member of the Barbados Agricultural Society, Barbados Sheep and Goat Association and Women in Agriculture, as she sat down recently to discuss the impact that current drought conditions on the island are having on crop and livestock production.
“Technically speaking, the drought has now really begun for these farmers, as this is the time of year that drought conditions on the island seem to increase starkly. As time progresses, we will hit the ‘onset drought’ stage during July and August, where you will see that a lot of farmers, especially dairy farmers, will have low production. A lot of farmers who deal in livestock, do not have their own land, so they normally rely on persons to get forages [plant material eaten by grazing livestock] for their animals. With these forages often not being managed as a crop, by not being fertilized with healthy nutrients, coupled with the increase in drought conditions, nutrition levels in animals will continue to be low,” she explained.
Having worked with several farmers over the years, one of the many repeated questioned posed to her, is how should they feed their animals, or tend to their crops during these seasons of water scarcity. The answer is a complex one Hinkson believes she will soon have an on paper solution, as she plans to develop a local feeding plan for farmers to help with the drought issue.
“My plans are to do small training programmes for farmers, to assist them in how to feed during the dry season, for example, with the usage of silage. We can make silage, but we have to make silage [a type of fodder made from green foliage crops] according to the stages where specific animals are at; even though there may be two farmers who have similar animals, these animals may require different levels of nutrients, that based on the plan, they will have different steps to take in a feeding programme. The conservation of water is also something all farmers should be doing, as it mitigates the full dependence on the water supply from the Barbados Water Authority (BWA),” Hinkson stated.
The most important thing right now for these agriculturalists according to Hinkson, is to actively monitor their products. With the constant changes seen in the availability of water and weather conditions at large, farmers cannot afford to become complacent, since will inevitable compromise their bottom line.