Twelve thousand years ago, agriculture did not exist. Human beings did not know then that, had they dropped seeds in the soil and waited, the seeds would have transformed themselves into trees and plants that would have produced food.
It’s a simple yet miraculous/scientific equation that still works today: seeds x soil = trees + food.
That realisation was a revelation. It sparked a revolution — the agricultural revolution. It is a historical and anthropological fact that civilisation came to be because of the presence of a tree, billions of trees and plants. Wood from trees was the main material for travel and technology.
Twenty-five years ago in Africa, Peter Wambugu, a farmer from Kenya, planted a new seed: he created a new apple variety. Today, in St Vincent and the Grenadines, Cherio Farms introduces the Wambugu apple to visionary farmers and health-conscious consumers.
In the near future, in another few months, Vincentians will enjoy eating sweet, juicy, nutritious Wambugu apples, grown on farms in SVG.
So, another agricultural revolution has again emerged out of Africa, the Garden of Eden. Cherio Farms is part of a neo-agricultural revolution taking us, not back to Africa, but forward with Africa. A quantum leap in history — and in bilateral relations between the farmers of Africa and the farmers of the Caribbean — has just occurred.
From the EEEE –the epoch of Eurocentric egoic error — of “importing” people from Africa and enslaving them on our lands, to this new EEEE — the era of eclectic and evolving education — where descendants of those formerly enslaved are now importing technology from Africa, routing it from Kenya and Tanzania, rooting that seeded wisdom in WAI — West Atlantic Islands — these same islands that will again prosper with the profits staying here.
Jamaica and Trinidad are already seeing success with their African apple and strawberry strategies. We, WAI, the West Atlantic Islands, will prosper now, again, because of the brains, not the bodies, the tech, not the toil, of Africans and their descendants.
Today, Cherio Farms is importing African technology as Hairouna farmers further the mental-slavery-emancipation process in SVG while simultaneously helping to remove the shackles from the economy.
Every year, Vincentians spend over EC$1 million eating imported red apples. In 2023, SVG imported 165,000 kilograms of apples, worth roughly EC$1,071,836.
Today, that is changing. Cherio Farms has already begun distributing the Wambugu apple saplings to some of SVG’s experienced farmers and trained agricultural professionals.
These include Kemston Cato and Hubert “Shaka” Williams, a seasoned, passionate and highly skilled farmer. Cato brings over 30 years of experience as an agricultural instructor, holding a master’s degree in food science, trained in Taiwan and Trinidad and Tobago. Also planting out the new Wambugu saplings is veteran farmer and pineapple specialist, Roosevelt John, in Mesopotamia Valley, the traditional breadbasket of SVG.
Marlon da Silva, yet another farmer, ripe with agricultural knowledge, has been successfully growing a variety of crops, including citrus, for over 25 years. This accomplished farmer will now be able to compare apples and oranges as he adds the Wambugu to his orchard.
Rodwell Williams also received a shoot of the Wambugu apple from Cherio Farms’ Che Connell, eager himself to understudy those far more knowledgeable than he in the ways of farming.
And he’s in the right place: Williams, who graduated with a degree in agronomy from the People’s Friendship University of Russia, is an agricultural science teacher at the Georgetown Secondary School, motivating his students to participate in, expand, and improve agriculture in SVG.
Master grower and SVG’s leading landscaper, Calvin “Toop” Grant, is expected to show that his green thumb makes the green and red Wambugu apples grow well in our fecund soil.
Lennox Lampkin, a prominent, pioneering, off-the-grid farmer, recognised for his regenerative farming together with his academic-turned-farmer wife, are Joy-fully ploughing their time and attention into the growing of the Wambugu apple on their farm in Rose Hall on the leeward side of St. Vincent.
Equally as enthusiastic about propagating the Wambugu apple in his windward coast citrus grove, part of Hairouna Groves and Farms, is semiconductor engineer Akil Houston, another highly-skilled and innovative Vincentian, partnering with Cherio Farms.
Returning to his family roots, in the hills off the Windward Highway, is young businessman and new farmer, Nicholas Boyea, whose uncle, Bucky Boyea, of Byera Hill, a businessman and parliamentarian, blazed a trail in farming in the 1970 and 1980s. Together, all of these professional agronomists, businesspersons and agriculturists, with their physical farms and proprietary intellectual properties, are seeding a plan that is expected to soon considerably reduce SVG’s food import bill.
Simultaneously, the plan, planting, and propagation of the Wambugu apple and other fruits will contribute to our nation becoming food self-sufficient, helping us, as a people, achieve food sovereignty by 2030.
According to Che Connell, proprietor and past student of the St. Joseph’s Convent Marriaqua, as is his elder brother, Rio — hence Cherio Farms — both having studied agricultural science at the outstanding school, which was, at the time, led by its principal, prominent educator, Sister Jacintha Wallace — these farmers and agronomists will observe how the Wambugu apple project bears fruit, and which micro climates in SVG will prove to be most fruitful for the crop.
“The already enthusiastic farmers chosen for the apple pilot project can then go bananas expanding the acreage used for this new health provider,” Che Connell said.
Wambugu apples are nutritious, low-calorie, and fat-free, a potent source of vitamin C, enhancing immunity.
Wambugu apples are rich in dietary fibre and contain potassium as well as antioxidants to protect against chronic diseases. They are considered a “superfood” with less sugar than some other varieties.
Cherio Farms says it expects this project to take root and cut a significant slice out of the cost of our national health bill.
Once Vincentians bite into this easily accessible, nutrition-dense, sweet fruit every day, they will certainly do well in keeping the doctor away.
Cherio Farms says it fully embraces and cordially invites SVG’s Ministry of Agriculture and the Taiwan Embassy to support the agricultural “appventure”™️.
Connell added that SVG farmers can harvest fields of knowledge from observing agricultural methods in Taiwan.
He says there is much to gather from visiting Taiwan farms, as the island nation, as a global leader in agriculture and technology, has an abundance of advanced knowledge to offer its Vincentian friends.
Connell says he envisions that, in collaboration with the ministry, many farmers will soon visit Kenya and other progressive countries in Africa, as Cherio Farms hopes to source apricots, strawberries, citrus, and grapes from the continent.
The Agricultural Revolution, otherwise known as the Neolithic Revolution, occurred 12,000 years ago. Sixteen months from now – what will the neo-agricultural revolution occurring now in Hairouna/Yurumein look like? None but ourselves can free our minds.