Men of the soil
PRESERVING the soil in the best interest of sustainable agricultural production is the name of the game with these men and women.
They are land husbandry specialists, professionals who are unafraid of getting their hands dirty in the performance of their jobs.
Collan Parke, who has been in the field for 40 years, shares with Career & Education insight into the career option this week. He is currently a land husbandry specialist with the Rural Agriculture Development Authority working out of St Thomas, where he also resides.
The married father of four also operates his own farm, which is sited on just over five acres of land. On three acres of his farm he grows coffee and on the rest of the land, fruit trees, including avocado, citrus, breadfruit, banana and plantain, as well as vegetable crops.
The 58-year-old attended Cornwall College and later York Castle High School, before going to the Jamaica School of Agriculture from where he received his diploma in agriculture. He also holds several General Certificate of Education and Jamaica School Certificate subjects. In addition, Parke has certificates in soil conservation, land husbandry and organic farming.
Who is a land husbandry specialist?
My main objective out there working is to see that farmers mainly, mostly use the land in a way that they are able to sustain their production. We try to mitigate soil erosion, a loss of fertility and usually what we do is put measures in place to see if we can arrest that.
What is the value of the work that you do?
It is very valuable. Without us, you find that people would be affected by erosion (with) all the topsoil being washed down into the sea. And we help the farmers, especially on the hillsides, to really maintain the production and live.
What was it that prompted your entry into the field?
Having gone to the School of Agriculture (at Twickenham Park, it was a natural transition into) starting work in the extension field as an extension officer. I was (later) selected to be trained as a soil conservation officer at a centre in Hanover named Smithfield. We went there and became trained soil conservationists (which has since led to my specialisation in land husbandry).
What is a typical day like for you?
Usually farmers have requests. They might ask you to come and line out contour barriers so I would go out with them and perhaps with an assistant, if I have one, and we line out the barriers. Sometimes some farmers are affected by run-off water and so we assist them in lining and cutting diversion ditches, which would divert the water and carry it into some kind of gully course. Where there is water logging we go there and assist them with lining ditches. Sometimes people have gully course developed on their land, cutting their property into two or more places. We go there and the type of assistance is to build check dams. The check dams is more or less similar to the hillside ditches, but they are in the form of some type of structure, whether it is concrete or wooden or stone, whatever we have available. And we lay it across the gully course so it slows the speed of the water, which is then able to leave behind the heavier debris.
What are the challenges you face on the job?
The first and most important one is finance. We need money to do some of the things we want to do, especially when it comes to excavating the divergent ditches. Sometimes gully courses become filled up with silt and we need to clear them out… When you don’t have the free flow of water, you find that the water will run loosely over the land rather than in the gully courses. If we are able to clean the gully courses regularly, then we won’t have some of the flooding problems we have and some of the water logging problems.
What do you most enjoy about your job?
I enjoy seeing whatever I put in place work. You are not able to do everything for them (farmers), but you show them various things and when you go back, you see the farm looking really good.
What are the academic requirements for entry into the field?
You have to pass your high school exams to qualify for the College of Agriculture, Science and Education. Having gone there, you will be exposed to a land husbandry course, which would allow you to enter
the field.
Trained as a land husbandry specialist, what employment options are open to you?
You can work as an extension officer. Perhaps if one of the big companies needs that type of skill,
like perhaps the banana company or the coffee company, you can get work with them. A farmer with a large farm who needs these types of services (could also employ you) because if they don’t have these measures in place, they cannot sustain production. You can, too, operate your own farm or work with organic farmers, who do not use inorganic fertilisers. They now have to depend on things like composting, mulching and the whole idea of barriers to cut their field into blocks.
So such farmers need the services of land husbandry specialists in order for them to be certified organic farmers.
How much can you earn annually as a land husbandry specialist?
A senior person like myself earns maybe $90,000 for the month before tax and we have travelling and upkeep allowance to take care of our motor cars. As an independent farmer, how much you earn would depend on what you farm and the size of your holdings. For example, if you have like five acres of land and you plant a crop like coffee, not withstanding the problems we are having with coffee, you might be able to get as much as 80 to 120 boxes per acre which would translate into $1.2 million to $1.8 million.
Why would you advise anyone to get into your line of work?
Without us, most of our lands would be denuded, eroded. Without that type of work, we would suffer from more landslides. And with more landslides, some people would lose not only farms but also their homes. As a land husbandry specialist, you contribute to the sustainable development of your farm and protecting your home from natural disasters. The other thing is that there are not very many land husbandry specialists who I know. In RADA, for example, there are just a few of us. They need to have more of us, especially in the very hilly parishes like St Andrew, for example, and out here in St Thomas, Portland, the Blue Mountains, St Mary. Many people live in these parishes and they have to work the land and they need our help to prevent soil loss.