CAP children receive agricultural training from Taiwan

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts-THE Community Achievers Project’s (CAP) children’s farm in Half Way Tree was given a boost recently by a team visit from the Republic of China on Taiwan’s Technical Mission.

Among those visiting the farm was Taiwan’s Ambassador to St. Kitts-Nevis, His Excellency Rong-chuan Wu, who told the children that he decided to visit the farm because he wanted to demonstrate how serious farming should be taken. 

“You have to take agriculture as a profession. It is not a game to come and play. You have to take care of these plants like they are your babies. You have to come every week and care for what you are doing.”

To encourage the children as they embark upon their first attempt at growing food commercially, Wu said that his embassy would be rewarding the children who give their heart and souls to the land. 

“My idea is that we are going to demonstrate the first row and then you are going to do it by yourselves in the weeks to come. Divided into groups you will compete to see who can grow the best, and we are going to give a prize to that group that grows the best in terms of quality,” the ambassador stated. 

Following his brief remarks Wu asked the children if they were willing to accept the task laid out before them, to which they screamed a resounding “Yes!”

Taiwan Technical Mission Leader Mars Shiue then took the 30-plus children to a row that his team had prepared that afternoon and taught them how to plant cantaloupe seedlings. 

According to Shiue, the children were taught “the modern way” of growing cantaloupe in which the seedlings would be planted along posts that would allow the fruit to hang rather than be grown on the ground, which is the typical practice. 

Additionally, the Taiwanese donated specially developed “F-1 hybrid seedlings” to the children in order to ensure that every plant bares a fruit within 60-70 days if they are “managed well”.

“What we are trying to do is get you to understand what agriculture is all about,” Shiue said. 

The children were eventually taught how to prepare their own agricultural rows in the half-acre field and in the coming weeks will be planting a variety of crops, including sweet potatoes, corn and tomatoes.

The farming programme of CAP will eventually be sustained entirely by the children of the Federation with only moderate adult supervision.

In a previous interview with SKNVibes, Director of Agriculture Ashton Stanley said that he viewed the CAP farming programme as an important way to boost “the development of the youths”, as well as an opportunity to show them that agriculture “can be a viable career opportunity”.