Ms Aurjul Wilson, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, with responsibility for agriculture, attracted much attention several days ago when she climbed into the department’s tractor and began ploughing the farmland of 103 year-old Charlie Gumbs of The Quarter.
The respected and revered gentleman excitedly watched the ploughing procedures – supervised by plough operator, Sheldon Richardson – for some time before retiring to his breakfast table. Mr Gumbs declared that he would do some of the planting but the roadside land, in front of his home, is really being cultivated by his Jamaican caretaker for nine years, Ms Leliegh Richards.
“This is an unusual sight,” The Anguillian remarked to Ms Wilson as she drove the ploughing machine to a finishing point of one of the rows.
“Yes,” she replied. “What is happening is that, this year, one of the objectives of the Ministry of Home Affairs, which has responsibility for agriculture, is to improve our customer service. Being the Permanent Secretary, I get a lot of complaints so there is a need for us to come out in the field to see exactly what the officers do – so that when we are making decisions or answering complaints, we are coming from a position of acknowledge.
“I started out with agriculture, but the objective is to go to the various departments, under the Ministry of Home Affairs, and see exactly what the complaints from the public are – and how we can best rectify them. For me it is a day outside of the office, but it is still a day at work and it gives me an appreciation for what these guys do in the hot sun all day.
“For instance, Sheldon has to plough this plot three times and this is repetitive work. Sitting in my office, I can’t appreciate this. We also need to inform the public about what it takes to get land ploughed.”
Sheldon spoke to The Anguillian as follows: “There are different procedures for ploughing land. First of all, where necessary, you begin with brush-cutting and then proceed with ploughing. If it is virgin land, it has to be ploughed at least three to four times. After that, you rotate and the last procedure which some farmers are now doing, is mulching… We are giving Charlie Gumbs two operations: ploughing and rotating.”
Mr Richardson continued. “Most of our farmers in Anguilla cultivate traditional crops of corn, peas and potatoes. But, recently, more of them are operating on a commercial basis where they grow cash crops like eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelons, pumpkins etc.
“Oh man, I feel honoured that our Permanent Secretary is actually here to see how hard we work, and how devoted and dedicated we could be to our work. When she hears complaints, she can see exactly what we are going through.”
