Farmers track progress through online platforms

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A flowering lettuce plant
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By Theresa Goodwin

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The thousands of backyard gardeners who benefited from the ‘farm-ah-yuh-yard’ programme, a major seedling distribution drive spearheaded by the Farmers Forum Antigua and Barbuda and other partners, are using social media and other platforms to share their progress thus far.

Many residents have posted videos and photos of their backyard gardens on the group’s Facebook page, showcasing their success.

Chairman of the forum, Marvin Joseph, stated that the group has also posted video tutorials online and in a WhatsApp chat to educate new and existing backyard gardeners on the dos and don’ts of having a garden.

“We are happy with what we are seeing; it brings life back to agriculture which is the entire point of this exercise, besides ensuring that people have good nutritious food on their tables. We wanted people to appreciate what the famers are doing,” Joseph said.

The farming group met with Ministry of Agriculture officials this week to review the success of the initiative and a detailed report will be provided to the public, according to Joseph.

He also stated that significant changes will be made to the second installment of the programme, dubbed ‘farm-ah-yuh-yard 2’ to be held at a date to be announced.

For the second leg, the registration period will be launched way ahead of the official distribution date to facilitate more registrants. The programme will also be widely publicised and the information regarding the variety of seedlings will be released early.

Joseph said the wait time for beneficiaries will also be reduced.

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