Farmers Drought
In
all of governments efforts to provide safe, adequate and a reliable service of
running water to its domestic and commercial consumers. Government has failed
to put the necessary provisions in place that would increase the supply of
running water to local farmers. In deed times are changing and the demand for
safe and healthy food is also on the rise. The distribution of food is also
becoming a task, and more and more the bulk of the food that is produced for
food consumption is getting smaller. While areas like Agronomy on
the hand is consuming larger amounts of the food produced by farmers. In a tourism base economy society like St.
Kitts and Nevis farmers are more now than ever compel to venture into the
business of commercial farming, the reason being he/she has to upgrade in order
to meet the food demands. The boost of activity in the tourism sector widens
market scale, thus giving the farmer greater demands to supply.
With
these potential markets, the farmers are more than often fighting a losing
battle, by trying to sustain or trying to captivate these markets using
traditional methods of water his/her crops. The rain fed system is the most
popular one used in our area by farmers, thus making it the only means of
irrigation sometimes. The farmer’s crops are watered when rain falls or he/she
put mechanism in place; for example water sprouts connected to the roof and
when there are heavy down pours water is collected and stored in large drums,
and manually water each plant by hand. This system of irrigation is only
effective in the rainy spell of the year, but it still has many disadvantages;
such as:
·
Rain doesn’t fall
every day.
·
Soil erosion is
high when there are heavy down pours.
·
Its labour
intensive.
One
other factor that may contribute to the inefficiency of this system is climate
change; this global epidemic creates a lot of uncertainty for the farmer.
Therefore, it is quite clear that because farmers depend solely on the rainy
season, the rain fed system is totally ineffective in the dry season. The
farmer then is unable to produce adequate quantities of his/her commodities on
a consistent basis throughout the year. Hence, it is fair to say that the
farmer is practically hand cuffed throughout half of the year. The farmer often
struggles to supply his/her market and would eventually lose them, not to
mention it is impossible for the farmer to convince his/her costumers that
he/she is capable of supplying in times of high demands. 
On
the other hand where some farmers are more fortunate than others to get access
to water, this is only half of the solution to the bigger problem. The equal distribution
of water throughout commercial farms drips irrigation systems are needed, these
systems thou effective, it is very costly and could be burden to the farmer.
Whereas farmers who are capable of installing the drip irrigation system
usually have to raise the prices of his/her commodity in order to cover his/her
cost and make a profit As a result of this he/she is unable to sell their
produce at competitive prices. High prices leads to low sales, this then prevent
the farmer from covering expenses and having great losses. The Sandy Point
Agricultural Cooperative Society Ltd therefore recognizes that the effort of
getting water and cost efficient drip irrigation implemented on the farms is a
challenge. And it will continue to
retard the potential growth of the farmer and his chances to help in the Fight
for Food Security. 
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