It’s been good to see farmers showcase their crops in the last few days. While it’s good for  development and MAF ticking its boxes, there’s a lot more behind the scenes that we are  struggling with. I grew up on a farm and still own a farm and the challenges we continue to  face aren’t specific to just our farm. Regardless of the operation size, here are some of the  things we face daily:  

1. It’s Hard to find good honest people. Most workers don’t last a month with the  physical labour. Something has definitely changed with workers today. The  introduction of cell phones vastly is a contributing factor and perhaps the fairy-tale that farming is easy. So many do not last. Highly unskilled and undereducated  workforce. Many of the school leavers that come to find jobs finish at either primary  school or early high school. Some cannot read and only know how to count. 

2. Water supply and climate change: Water supply will always be a challenge and I  remember a request addressed to Samoa Water Authority a few CEOs back from  farmers to help and find a solution to water cost. Declined, and replied that we should  all pay the same rate as everyone else, even if we are contributing to food security.  No discount, no grace period. Today in our village, probably 50% of families don’t  have water supply anymore. 

Climate change has a huge impact especially when it comes to temperature changes  and pest control. So many pests are immune these days to fertilisers, chemicals and  even organic control. When people say how beautiful butterflies are, I refrain from breaking the magic fantasy because they’re pests when it comes to my passion fruit farm. They kill the babies by eating all their new leaves. 

3. Theft: No matter how good the work is, there is a lot of stealing going on. You will  hear some funny stories from many farmers but the most memorable for us, were two or three boys from Savaii. Hard workers who were a little gullible and sheltered. The neighbouring farms and their own workers offered them pornography to steal  thousands worth of harvest from us.  

Oh, this happens! Imagine that! The village shop indeed confirmed that the  neighbours would drive to their shop very early in the morning or near closing time with a baskets full of head cabbages and Chinese cabbages, driven by none other than the neighbour, who also works on someone else’s cattle farm. So, if we can’t trust our neighbours? Who can we trust? 

4. Name dropping: Most workers leave for different reasons. Mostly theft, unskilled, unteachable, carelessness or if they don’t like their bosses. Farmers work hard to earn  their money, you get careless youth that break your tools, throw away expensive materials or bury 1000 seeds of growing corn which all have dire consequences, impacting your supply chain.  

When they leave, they’ll use our names to find jobs claiming that they’ve worked for  years when in fact, they only lasted a few weeks. Most of these workers come to us  without any prior farming knowledge. We teach them and when they are either  caught red handed or swayed by other farms nearby to pack their bags for an extra  50c. 

Yes, we get that too. The men that sometimes want easy pay and instead of growing  the given seeds, they’ll just bury them all in one hole or pocket them, as if the end  result won’t show.  

Flabbergasting, I know. We found out from some of their relatives that their new corn farm is growing well after weeks of quitting.  

5. There is no ownership. You will be surprised at what some of the workers get up to. In the last few years, I’ve installed camera security systems at some of the farming  properties. Many don’t know that we have those and steal everything from  chainsaws, bullets for the cows, seeds, money from inside the cars in broad daylight,  toys, any or all hand tools they will come across. You have them, they’ll steal it. They  don’t care because they don’t see themselves as contributors. 

6. There will be a few workers who stay loyal and committed to their work. These are  the guys that have stayed with us for more than ten years. They’ve become family and are proud of their work. They share in our vision and strive to succeed alongside  us. 

Some of them have gone overseas on RSE and return during off seasons. They  understand that we can never match overseas salaries but will work while they wait  for the next overseas job. Finding good workers is like finding a diamond among rocks. While we celebrate Samoa’s 60th Independence, let us remember those who are  toiling, day in and day out without depending on funding. I will share more next time about the farmer’s plight.