Miss Tiny directed me through the vegetation of her small Manchester property in west-central Jamaica, looking back every few seconds as she crunched her way through the foliage.
Her frame isn't strong enough.
The 83-year-old woman who commands little more than four-and-a-half feet has been the primary care giver of her large family of 13 children and grandchildren for twenty years.
She tells me that she had a lot of knowledge about how to grow her own food when she worked as a farmer.
Miss Tiny shows me the fruits and vegetables that are grown in her house.
Miss Tiny says that there were a few silver linings during the Pandemic.
She received cash from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MLSS) and the World Food Programme (WFP) through a COVID-19 relief program, which will be used to upgrade the aged wood and galvanize outhouse on her property.
Her family was able to supplement their food assistance with harvests from the food crops scattered throughout their property. Some might say that Miss Tiny is wealthier than others.
She's not the only one.
Many Jamaicans responded to movement restrictions and reduced income by turning to backyard farming.
15% of households in the Caribbean are currently farming for consumption, according to a survey conducted by the Caribbean Community and the World Food Programme. The social protection provided to the most vulnerable helped to bring multi-pronged relief during the economic downturn.
More than half of Jamaicans experienced income disruptions due to the Pandemic, making it the third highest rate in the region, after Trinidad & Tobago and Saint Lucia.
The Rural Agricultural Development Authority started distributing backyard farming kits in February of 2021. The kits contained various seeds, which included okra, tomato, peas, beans, carrot, onion, cabbage, callaloo, pepper, and scallion.
According to Green, Jamaicans are encouraged to devote space in their backyards for the production of 2 to 4 vegetable crops per year. We want Jamaicans to be involved in growing their own food and we are giving them the chance to do so.
More than 2500 kits were given out.
Multiple Jamaican backyard farming pages began to emerge in 2020 if social media can be seen as a gauge of popular sentiment. The one with more than four thousand followers has an average of 8 posts a day.
Against the backdrop of almost exclusive dependence on foreign food, the movement has been a good development.
According to the Statistical Institute of Jamaica, Jamaica imported $3,078.6 million in food from the United States over the course of two years, most of which came from the United States. With the impact of global COVID-19 supply shocks on inventories and food prices, and with movement restrictions and job losses experienced during the Pandemic, the situation was favorable for a shift towards eating local.
Jamaica has strengthened its food security by engaging citizens to grow and consume their own food, thereby saving costs, while enhancing their nutrition, health, and well-being.
Positive spill over effects into the community have been created by the movement.
The Barnes brothers are located up the hill from Miss Tiny. None of them are employed, and one is blind, so they can't afford to pay their bills.
The brothers don't have a lot of money, but they still make up for it with food and generosity.
There are three acres on which the Barnes brothers have devoted their sustenance and livelihood.
The crops grown on their property provided the perfect accompaniment to the large bags of flour and rice that they received from MLSS.
He says that they benefit from planting it and not selling it out.
The brothers stress that they are happy to give members of the community food from their property and only sell it when needed.
A man is tending to his farm.
Jamaica has an excellent case study on how social protection systems can be used to respond to a crisis. The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), the Planning Institute of Jamaica and the Ministry of Labour and Social Services provided food and cash assistance to many vulnerable Jamaicans.
Some of the most inspiring stories during the past two years were those of self-sufficiency, particularly in contexts in which social protection was used as a complement rather than a sole income stream
In the case of Bearyl Tingle, an active 70 year old from Clarendon, social protection was used to scale her backyard farming operation. She was able to send her niece to university by investing in her chicken business.
She said that survival is important.
She is at her chicken business.
It's not what you do, it's how you do it, and so as we drive and seek to improve production, we are looking on not just continuing to boost in terms of growing more but wasting less. The Agriculture Minister, Pearnel Charles Junior, promoted agricultural efficiency and self-sufficiency at an event to launch Jamaica's 'Grow Smart, Eat Smart' campaign.
The Plant It Fi Save It campaign was launched at the University of the West Indies' Caribbean School of Media and Communication in Jamaica.
In addition to promoting self-sufficiency, the backyard farming movement has provided youth with the opportunity to overcome outdated notions of farming, incorporating technology, resilience, and independence into what was once seen as the domain of the old and the poor.
The use of technology in backyard farming has provided the nation with the opportunity to overcome traditional obstacles to getting started in agriculture.
He said that backyard farming is no longer what it was. You now have container gardening, roof-top gardening systems, you can automate your backyard, and small systems that can produce lettuce, tomatoes, and a whole host of things. People need to be encouraged and shown how.
In Jamaica the cry has gone out to the community to grow their own food.
It has never been simpler or more important.
Miss Tiny is outside.
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