Beneficiary Stories
Jamaica: Alton Hall, Motivated Young Farmer
For several years on any given weekday, Alton Hall would rise before the crack of dawn to climb the steep inclines to farm a nearly two-acre plot in the hills of Seville, St. Ann on Jamaica’s north coast. Alton did his best to eke out a living for his young daughter and highly supportive wife.
For him, the arrival of the Government of Jamaica/Adaptation Fund Programme-sponsored Farmer Field School implemented by the Rural Agricultural Development Authority was a lifeline. The new knowledge, techniques and best practices in land use management taught by the Programme helped him to transform once parched and fallow fields to lush, green cultivation that fetch competitive prices at the farm gate and in the market.
“The GOJ/Adaptation Fund Programme is a good programme. I encourage it. I love it, because this is something we as farmers needed for years now! It helped us a lot as young farmers… there are not a lot of farmers who can buy a bag of fertilizer or a tin of onions, so this programme has been a help to us.” – Alton Hall, one of the shining examples of Jamaica’s ‘Youth in Agriculture’ Programme, who quickly realized and grasped the multiple opportunities offered by the Government of Jamaica/Adaptation Fund Programme (GOJ/AFP)
Alton Hall and his family. Photo by PIOJ