Chickens rule the roost in Cherry

Residents of Cherry in the community of Dover, St Catherine, pride themselves as being good poultry farmers. Many of them supply meat to companies such as Jamaica Broilers, while others pound the pavement regularly in search of buyers.

Laverne Dixon has been at it for 20 years and she has no intentions of giving up.

"Wi have wins and losses because the heatwave weh pass the other day kill off nuff a wi chicken dem. All 100 a dead one time when the heat lick. All mongoose, dem wi kill the whole a dem, and you affi start all over again. You have all sleepless night when the chicken dem very young. Rat is another problem. As soon as you hear likkle noise, you affi run out and check fi mek sure everything alright," Dixon said.

IMPORTANT ROLE

Approximately 112,000kg of poultry meat is produced in Jamaica yearly, 70 per cent of which is provided by commercial-size operators. Small farmers such as those in Cherry, therefore, play an important role in supplying chicken meat to the tables of Jamaicans. Dixon, however, said that finding buyers is often difficult.

"People nah come to wi, wi affi go out to seek it. If wi nuh go, wi nuh get no sale. Wi go Spanish Town, Portmore ... . Anyweh the market deh wi affi go fi sell wi chicken. Sometimes dem trus and seh two weeks and sometimes in two weeks, you still can't get you money," she said.

Gernel Dixon said the length of time it takes for some persons to pay their bills has caused many farmers to go out of business.

"When wi farm our chicken and sell it, a man tell yuh seh him a guh give you the money two weeks' time, and all two months, three months wi nuh get it. That run wi out of business," said this one-time chicken farmer.