Mr. Poorun Seesurn in his field at Solferino

“Choose Agriculture if you want to be your own boss”
When asked why he decided to engage himself in agriculture when he had a stable job, Mr. Poorun says that the main reason for this decision was that he wanted to be his own boss. And since he has always been passionate about agriculture, it was easier for him to get into this sector. He was recently married when this decision was taken. He took a leave without pay from his job as a police officer for a year and went to farming. Since his business was working well, he finally decided to resign from work, which was 17 years ago. Today, Mr. Poorun is a successful grower in spices and fine herbs and is also a part-time first-aid instructor. Mr. Poorun is also one of the few growers in Mauritius who likes to improve his farming techniques. He is an innovator and is always present in group meetings organized by the extension services, and ready to collaborate with them whenever a new technology has been generated by research that can benefit the farming community. Mr. Poorun claims that to date, his business is working well, but there also exist some challenges.


Access to information
According to Mr. Poorun, a lot of information is required by someone who is engaged in agriculture. Regarding access to information, he relies on the extension services provided by the Agricultural Research and Extension Unit (AREU), but he also does some research of his own. First of all, to be good at farming, one needs to rely on his/her personal experience, which is then strengthened by information from extension and other sources. Mr. Poorun also searches for information on the internet, which is mostly related to new products (Organic insecticides and fertilisers for example) available on the local market. Regarding the use of ICTs in agriculture in Mauritius, Mr. Poorun believes that apart from the Agricultural Production and Market Information System (APMIS) and sms disease alert by AREU, there is not much ICT applications which are at the disposal of the farming community. However, the drawbacks of these two services are that the information is not updated on a regular basis. To improve this, he believes that more trained personnel must work on this and also farmers must get training on ICTs to be able to use it.


Challenges in Agriculture
Mr. Poorun says that presently the cost of production is very high and in 10 years’ time, he sees that many planters will disappear for various reasons; we have an ageing farming community in Mauritius, youths are not getting in this sector, and there is a serious problem of lack of labour. Also, Mauritius is being affected by climate change. If there is no encouragement from the government, there will be a drop-out in this sector.  Moreover, there is a need to improve our mindset with respect to farming. Instead of being considered as a noble job, there is very little respect for the people engaged in this sector. The example that Mr. Poorun gives is that in Europe or America, a farmer/entrepreneur is a well-respected person, which is not the case for Africa. 


Way forward
The tendency is to go towards hydroponics production, but here also, it is perceived that crops produced under hydroponics are “artificial” and not safe for health since the crops grow only on chemicals for its nutrient intake. 


YOU who are reading this article, will you get into agriculture because of the opportunities in this sector (being your own boss) or you will hesitate because of the challenges (negative perception on agriculture)?