THE GLEANER, MONDAY, MARCH 7, 2022 | www.jamaica-gleaner.com | NEWS A8 WHEN AMBROZ INE Brooks-Rose got a job at St Mary Banana Estates (now JP Farms) some 31 years ago, she figured it was just a pit stop on the way to her real objective of pursuing higher education. The last thing she expected was to be so thoroughly fulfilled by the work that it would become her chosen profession, and help her create the life she wanted for her family. “When I just started at St Mary Banana Estates, now JP Tropical Foods, and I saw the type of work, I said to myself that I was not going to stay here for long. I planned to stay for about two or three years, get myself straightened out, get my kids ready, and eventually start to go back to school,” Brooks-Rose mused. “However, that did not happen because I get to love the farming operation, and see it as a great stepping stone to move from one stage to another.” Today, she is the lone female of three field supervisors at JP Farms in St Mary, overseeing her team of approximately 60 workers on the 152-acre banana and plantain farms. NEVER PHASED BY LABOUR IN THE FIELDS Brooks-Rose insists that she was never phased by the labour in the fields or having to deal with her male counterparts in the traditionally male-dominated sector. She credits this attitude for her methodical rise through the farming ranks. “While going to high school I was always a tomboy, so I did not have much trouble with the boys. Sometimes they wanted to baby me up and I said, ‘No!’ I worked in the field as a general worker for a couple of years, then I went to the packhouse. After being in the packhouse, I was promoted to an assistant supervisor and then a supervisor,” Brooks-Rose explained. Her motivation for staying in the field this long is simple. She explained that farming feeds the nation. And by doing her job well, she is helping to keep Jamaicans healthy and fed. That is the same message she continually preaches to the workers she supervises. And to get them to achieve the quantity and quality targets set by the company each cycle, she has some other methods of motivation. “Oftentimes when we reach the target for the month, I will buy the person who has the best output and the best quality a drink after work,” Rose-Wood said, “But if I have to push them hard to pick up the slack, I will do that, too.” Considering that her farm regularly outperforms others across the company, it’s easy to see that Brooks-Rose is doing something right. But she modestly deflects the credit to her workers, who, she said, consistently put out the extra effort to realise the company’s targets. She commended JP for being very progressive in their hiring and human resource practices, noting that the company rewards ability and talent, and consistently offers opportunities to both genders. Approximately one-third of the field workers at JP Farms are women. NO GENDER BARRIER AT JP FARMS “We don’t have a gender barrier at the farm. If there is an opportunity for a woman, she will do it. To those young ladies interested in pursuing agriculture professional ly, Brooks-Rose urged them to “go for it. At the end of the day, you can’t lose if you go into farming because you feed the nation. Women tend to be leaders, and the more women we have in agriculture, the better off Jamaica will be. Whatever a woman sets out to do, she will want to be her best.” JP Farms celebrates women in farming JP Farms’ Farm Supervisor Ambrozine Brooks-Rose is undaunted by the labour in the fields. ‘At the end of the day, you can’t lose if you go into farming because you feed the nation. Women tend to be leaders, and the more women we have in agriculture, the better off Jamaica will be. Whatever a woman sets out to do, she will want to be her best.’ Ambrozine Brooks-Rose, farm supervisor at JP Farms. CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTUzNTI=