FARMER SUPPORT SERVICES

Land Availability

Selected farmers will have access to plots of land in 2, 5, 10, and 15 acre lots. Parks will have infrastructures that provide access to clean planting material, certified seeds, solar and wind power, irrigation systems with deep water wells, electric farm equipment, pesticide monitoring through drone and ground sensors, soil testing kits, and road systems.

Self-financing and Sustainability

The land will be parcelled 50% for farmers and 50% for the nonprofit ECO Park Farming Cop. Income from the ECO Park Farming Corp. sale of it produce will be used to fund the farmers’ operations and build the park infrastructure and expansions. Farmers will pay a small revenue-sharing fee for using the park and its support services when income from their crop sales are received.

Farm Cooperative Stores

The coop stores will be managed by the Jamaica Agriculture Society JAS. Through these stores, farmers can access ECO rental farm equipment and tools designed for small farm productivity. Farms can order customized organic fertilizer pellets and biochar soil enhancement based on soil testing.

Biochar Carbonization and Bio-pellet Production Plant

The ECO Parks Project will construct a 300kg/hr bamboo biochar production plant in each park. The production and inventory of N, P, and K and biochar granules will be custom mixed and packaged based on soil analyses and crop plans. Delivery of custom fertilizers, biochar and pesticides is projected at under 72 hours.

Education Support Services

Each park will maintain a staff of organic extension officers and biotech engineers to help the with the new organic farming methods, agriculture science and soil testing for customized organic fertilizers, pesticides, and application methods. Local Park staff positions will provide employment opportunities to graduate students from local colleges. CASE and the UWI in the fields of agronomy, microbiology, and biotechnology.

Agriculture and Climate Change Research Centre

ECO Parks plans to build a ten-acre research and testing station with 1000 M2 Agriculture Research Laboratory and a 1000M2  greenhouse in Hanover. The station will focus on plant cloning, heavy metal soil and water filtration,  organic fertilizer enhancements, organic seed treatment, and the production of cultured local microbes in bioreactors. Graduate Students from Jamaica and Canada can work on advanced agriculture and climate change solutions as exchange students and provide published papers and advanced technical support to park farmers in each of the parks.

Centralized Organic Cold Storage, Packaging and Distribution

In a joint venture with the JAS and ECO Parks, the Organic CS & PD facility will acquire the products at a global farm price and ship to distributors, Caribbean, West Indies and African stores in the US, Canada, and UK.