For 30-year-old Ired Etienne, farming is much more than a livelihood; it’s a passion cultivated from the time he knew himself. Yet as Saint Lucia’s government bets on hydroponics to revive agriculture among young people, Etienne represents both the promise and pitfalls of this high-tech move.
Minister for Agriculture Alfred Prospere insists the sector’s survival hinges on engaging youth like Etienne. “The senior persons are on their way out, and we need to attract the young people,” Prospere urged at this week’s Cabinet briefing, championing hydroponics as a gateway to modern farming. “We can only do that by introducing new technology [and] innovations.”
Etienne, though intrigued, tempers enthusiasm with realism. “I’ve seen that it has advantages and disadvantages,” he said in an interview with St Lucia Times. The advantages are that plants don’t compete with weeds, and you can control nutrients directly. But he is cautious about the system’s limits, wary that too much or too little sunlight can ruin a harvest.
