Meet the Senior Farmer of the Year: Andrew Bartley
We have brought you coverage of the Ministry of Agriculture’s Junior Farmer of the Year and Woman Farmer of the Year. Earlier today, we travelled to Belmopan and Rock Stone Pond to meet the Senior Farmer of the Year, Andrew Bartley. The work he does on the Kingdom Orchard Farm is a collaborative effort between his wife, Monique Bartley, his three children, and his community. Bartley is preparing to be recognized at this weekend’s National Agriculture and Trade Show Grounds, along with the Junior and Woman Farmer of the Year. Ahead of that event, News Five’s Paul Lopez ventured out to learn more about Bartley’s work.
Paul Lopez, Reporting
Meet Adrian Bartley, the 2023 Senior Farmer of the Year. Bartley owns and manages the Kingdom Orchard Farm, fourteen acres of farmland in Rock Stone Pond in Belize Rural North.
Adrian Bartley
Adrian Bartley, Senior Farmer of the Year
“Currently we have local chickens. We have a small piggery operation going. I recently finished crops. We harvested about twenty-five hundred heads of cabbage. We had about a thousand tomato trees and a thousand bell peppers, zucchini. We have coconuts that we planted about three years ago. We have tons of cassava, plantains. I know that there’s more in there. Yeah, kale, lettuce and something else.”
The Rock Stone Pond Community is located more than seventy miles from Belmopan where Adrian, his wife Monique Bartley, and their three children reside. Today, Monique spent the morning preparing fifty plates of food for her school feeding program in Belmopan. She does this every Monday and Wednesday, using produce from the farm.
Monique Bartley
Monique Bartley, Co-Owner, Kingdom Orchard Farm
“It is a lengthy process. We have to travel from Rock Stone Pond which is about eighty miles. And, if I don’t have a vehicle, then I have to catch the bus. And so I bring the raw materials, bring it here, prepare it with the help of my daughters. And if Adrian is here, then he helps. If not, then you’re left alone. I’m all alone. And then I get the process rolling early in the morning. Start with the preparation and then about, ten o’clock, ten thirty I done cook. And then plate and wait for the teachers to come and pick it up. And so we could go and do what we have to do.”
Back at the farm, Adrian has prepared hundreds of watermelons, bell peppers, cabbage, lettuce, and kale seedlings that will eventually go into the ground. With advice from the Ministry of Agriculture he is about to engage in a practice known as crop rotation.
Adrian Bartley
“The wonderful thing about that is you don’t want to tax the soil too much because if you plant one thing over and over again, it will take the same nutrient from the soil and then the soil become imbalance, and then you have a small little scale case of desertification. So we want to make sure that we have longevity, you know use the best farming practices possible. Now, a part of that longevity is also the irrigation system.”
Paul Lopez
“Tell me a bit about your irrigation system, this setup, and what you’ve had to do.”
Adrian Bartley
“Yes, as I shared with you, we started out here about three years ago. First it was all nice. You know, we planted, about five acres of corn and that was wonderful. And then we did watermelon and we did some other things. And then in 2021, there was a short drought. At that time, we had about five or six acres of corn planting and about two acres of watermelons and everything went dry, you know, and we lost everything. With help of friends, we got our resources together. I hired out a service and we got a well drilled to about twenty-seven feet deep. This is the first dry season where we’re testing the well; thank God that the water table is holding up.”
At eleven thirty a.m., two teachers from Garden City Primary School arrived at Bartley’s home to pick up and deliver the food she prepared for students already on lunch break. This work in the kitchen is a labor of love for Monique. She receives nothing from the school in return, except for the fifteen minutes she gets to sit down with the children to share her faith.
Paul Lopez
“It’s a lot of investment for you. You’re not making any returns on this. What’s your thought on that?”
Monique Bartley
“Well, it’s, you see, if you look at it from that standpoint, then you will say it doesn’t make any sense. But then if you know what it feels like to be hungry at school, then it’s a different perspective.”
Paul Lopez
And you know what it’s like.
Monique Bartley
“Yes. Yeah, I’m the second of nine, so yes. I grew up in the Ceaser Ridge area and like I said I’m the second of nine. At that time, my mom had seven or eight of us we used to have a church right on the corner and they used to have soup kitchen. And, we would go every Saturday religiously to get our meal. And so, my mom would help in any way that she could, and whenever she would have a surplus, then she would share to share to the community. So that’s where I get.”
Beverly Hope Requeña
Beverly Hope Requeña, Retired Teacher
“I make sure that on Wednesdays, Mondays and Wednesdays when the Bartleys would feed fifty children, I am here to assist with getting the food, make sure that the children are sectioned. I have the names there, and even though it’s more than fifty sometimes we try to give everybody. We have students here that don’t go home for lunch. They would come to school and they would be here all day, and they used to bring their lunch. Some students would not even bring a lunch and Mr. Hall, the principal; he would always be providing something. Sometimes we have the cafeteria giving food to children that won’t have lunch. S you would see them waiting at that gate, when we’re trafficking with the lunch, they wait for the lunch. They’re coming to help bring the boxes and stuff like that. So it’s a very big help.”
Adrian and Monique Bartley found themselves at a crossroad at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Adrian was working in the tourism industry and due to multiple constraints; they were unable to sustain the feeding program. With a machete and a passion for feeding the less fortunate, Bartley began clearing family land in Rock Stone Pond. Three years later, he is a full-time farmer and the feeding program continues to supply necessary nutrition to children in Belmopan.
Adrian Bartley
“Our long-term goal is to be able to provide emergency food for families in need. And then, because I haven’t forgotten those days where the bell rang and you would go and wait in the bathroom until it rings again, you wash your face and you come out smiling. Not knowing that, you know, you are hungry. Many kids go through that and we want to be able to, to help in that way. We were quiet about it because many people abuse the name of Jesus and they abuse that word, charity, and we didn’t want to be seen as one of those. They said, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. But I think that the vision is so large that it is not for one man. I think Belize has the answer for Belize’s problem and we’re using the farm as a solution to the problem of food scarcity and hunger. I want to invite the entire nation to be a brother’s keeper. Contact us, you could contact me at six-three-five-nine-six-seven-five and see how we could partner. We want to start an apprenticeship program for young men in Belize City and eventually young women as well, to come out here for three months at a time.”
Reporting for News Five I am Paul Lopez.
