Sponsored by Mill Reef Fund
Video Description
Beekeeper Instructor teaching students about the hive and the queen. This was a project undertaken by the non-profit GARD Center and sponsored by Mill Reef Fund of Antigua & Barbuda.
Category Archives: Agriculture
GARD Center CSA Course Highlights – EAG Sponsor
The Center has successfully completed 14 weeks of training in Community Climate Smart Agriculture with special focus on Business, Backyard Gardening and Hydroponics. This training sponsored by the Environmental Awareness Group (EAG) focused on the communities of the North, East Marine Management Area (NEMMA). The course commenced on 31st May 2022 with sessions held every Tuesday – Thursday from 5:00 – 7:30 p.m. at GARD Center.
The latter part of the training encouraged participants to engage in practical, hands-on training and field visits were made to Hydroponics Farms and Backyard Gardens. The practical components also saw persons constructing raised beds, a compost bin, and a Mini Hydroponics unit as part of a Start-Up Kit. Additionally, participants engaged in planting seeds as well as transplanting seedlings into raised beds as part of their practical sessions.
The Completion Ceremony for the Environmental Awareness Group (EAG) was held on Wednesday 31st August 2022 at GARD Center and 8 out of 11 trainees receive certificates, a Mini Hydroponics and Backyard Garden Start-Up Kit with other complimentary tools to assist with their Backyard Gardening and Hydroponics journey.
Practical Sessions and Field Visits for Backyard Gardening and Hydroponics Class Sessions
Bowen’s Hydroponics Field Visit
SHAADE Hydroponics Field Visit
Backyard Gardening Field Visit to Mr. Osborne’s Property
\Mr. Osborne’s Backyard Gardening
Crabbs Plant Nursery Field Visit
Cleaning GARDC Hydroponics System
Exploring Types of Hydroponic Systems
Finding Donkey Manure for Raised Garden Beds
Building Raised Beds
Constructing Compost Bin Using Pallets
Planting Cuttings of Flower Plants Using Powder in Perlite
Volunteering and Planting Seedlings
CSA Course Highlights – Sandals Foundation Sponsor
Our Sponsor for this Project
The Sandals Foundation sponsored 20 persons in Climate Smart Agriculture for Youth with Hydroponics and saw 14 successful participants who received training. The course started on 30th May 2022 and sessions were held every Monday – Wednesday from 5:00 – 7:30 p.m. at GARD Center.
The latter part of the training encouraged participants to engage in practical, hands-on training. In addition, field visits were made to Hydroponics Farms and Backyard Gardens. The practical components of the course encouraged persons to construct raised beds and a Mini Hydroponics Unit as part of a Start-Up Kit. Another part of the practical sessions encouraged participants to engaged in planting seeds as well as transplanting seedlings into raised beds.
The course ended with a Completion Ceremony on Wednesday 31st August 2022 at GARD Center and the participants received a Mini Hydroponics and Backyard Garden Start-Up Kit with other complimentary tools to assist with their Backyard Gardening and Hydroponics journey.
Completion Ceremony
Building Raised Garden Beds
Practical session and field visit for Back Yard Gardening & Hydroponics. Building of raised garden beds
Planting of Seeds
Introduction to the Hydroponics System
Backyard Gardening Field Visit to Mr. Osborne
Update of Training Sessions at the GARD Center
Evening training is currently ongoing at the GARD Center in Beginners Beekeeping sponsored by the Mill Reef Fund and Climate Smart Agriculture with Business Enterprise, Hydroponics and Backyard Gardening funded by the Environmental Awareness Group (EAG) and the Sandals Foundation. These training sessions are held at the GARD Center in Mercers Creek from 5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
During these 14 weeks of Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) training, participants have been involved in Business Enterprise sessions to include Costing and Pricing, Communication & Marketing, Intellectual Property, Business Plan, Parasitology, Budding and Grafting and Vermiculture. These training courses and are now in their sixth week of training and the participants have been engaged in climate smart discussions and vibrant class sessions. As these courses progress, each participant is eagerly looking forward to more practical hands-on training and field work. In the weeks ahead, participants would also engage in Packaging and Labelling, Backyard Gardening and Hydroponics practicals along with field visits.
Group A – Sponsored by the Sandals Foundation.
Budding & Grafting
Group B- Sponsored by the Environmental Awareness Group (EAG)
Marketing and Communication
Vermiculture 
Parasitology
Over 30 persons have shown interest in 12 weeks of training in Beginners Beekeeping of whom 25 participants are currently receiving the tools and hands-on training to prepare them to begin their apiaries. Each participant will receive the added component of Business Enterprise to include Packaging and Labelling to develop their brand and business idea. During the training participants have shown great enthusiasm in class sessions and a WhatsApp group was created to share information and ask questions to expand on their knowledge in Beekeeping. Each participant constructed their own bee frames and were outfitted with bee suits to carry out a field visit at the Urlings Primary School to remove a beehive. The bees were safely relocated to bee boxes and the honey extracted from the beehive was refined. The beeswax was used to make lip balm and other products and each participant received a sample.
12 Weeks of Training in Beginners Beekeeping sponsored by the Mill Reef Fund
Orientation Day
Orientation 
Orientation Day
Making Lip Balm with Bee’s Wax
Extracting Honey
Making Lip Balm from honey 
Assembling Bee Frames
Using A Bee Smoker
Students watching as how to use the bee smoker is demonstrated.
Field Visit to Urlings Secondary School to Remove Bee Hive
Participants assisted with the removal of a bee hive from the school.
GARD Center Hydroponic Programme for Strengthened Food Production – sponsored by Sandals Foundation
News Release
Youth Hydroponic Programme to Strengthen Community Food Production and Livelihood Opportunities
The GARD Center (Gilbert Agricultural and Rural Development Center) is a grassroot non-profit, non-government organization which operates under the auspices of the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas (MCCA). The Center is very pleased to announce its continuous partnership with the Sandals Foundation through its funding of the “Climate Smart Agriculture For Youth- Hydroponic” Project.
For the past thirty-two (32) years, the Center has been working arduously with at-risk youth, men and women in the community to engage them in various forms of sustainable agriculture for the 21st century.
With a primary focus of raising climate smart agriculture practices amongst young people towards long term food security, the Climate Smart Agriculture for Youth – Hydroponic programme seeks to:
- Create awareness of the present and future threats related to climate change and agriculture.
- Make youth aware of the contributions they can make in the agriculture sector for a better future, especially through the application of climate-smart practices in agriculture, during this COVID-19 period.
- Train a total of 20 youth in hydroponics systems.
- Build the capacity of participants to construct a hydroponic unit and provide a starter kit to include seeds, rockwool and a water pump.
The programme support forms part of the Sandals Foundation’s 40 sustainable community projects being executed across the Caribbean to commemorate its parent company’s 40th anniversary. Through its broad scale investment in a number of farming and agriculture educational programmes, the philanthropic arm of Sandals Resorts seeks to strengthen the Caribbean’s food security and livelihood opportunities.
About the Sandals Foundation
The Sandals Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Sandals Resorts International (SRI), the Caribbean’s leading family-owned resort company. The 501(c)(3) non-profit organization was created to continue and expand upon the charitable work that Sandals Resorts International has undertaken since its founding in 1981 to play a meaningful role in the lives of the communities where SRI operates throughout the Caribbean. The Sandals Foundation funds projects in three core areas: education, community and the environment. One hundred percent of the monies contributed by the general public to the Sandals Foundation go directly to programs benefiting the Caribbean community. To learn more about the Sandals Foundation, visit online at www.sandalsfoundation.org or follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
This partnership is in collaboration with the Agricultural Extension Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA). The GARD Center will expand its Climate Smart Agriculture programme that focuses on Hydroponics systems.
Mother’s Day Soap Special
Say “I Love You” to MOM by purchasing one of these lovely locally handmade Soap Plates.
Update Sold Out no more stock!! Thank you to those that supported our venture.
IICA-CBF EbA Project Newsletter 5
Issue Description: In terms of project execution, the month of March was particularly pivotal. It represented both the end of the second year and start of the third and final year of the IICA-CBF EbA project. It also hosted a critical in-country mission of the IICA Soil and Water team to train farmers and technicians on Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) and Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) using a soil-centric approach, while simultaneously planning for the much anticipated training for the communities themselves to be able to operate community drone kits to collect data and monitor project sites. .
Link to the Newsletter: IICA CBF EbA Newsletter Issue #5 -March 2022
The IICA-CBF Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) Project seeks to assist beneficiary Caribbean countries in their efforts to maintain and increase resilience and reduce the vulnerability of ecosystems and people in the face of the adverse effects of climate change.
UN: International Women’s Day 2022
We would like to acknowledge some of the hard-working women who have contributed significantly to the development of the GARD Center over the past years and currently using a poem.
Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms,
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
IICA-CBF EbA Project Newsletter 4
Link to the Newsletter: IICA CBF EbA Newsletter Issue #4 -Feb 2022
This issue features some of the women involved in IICA-CBF EbA project (N.B. from Antigua: Agriculture Science Teacher & Foreman in EbA project, Karen James and GARD Center’s Executive Director, June Jackson). We hope it provides food for thought to enhance, empower, enable and inspire more and better participation of women in actions for climate adaptation.
The IICA-CBF Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) Project seeks to assist beneficiary Caribbean countries in their efforts to maintain and increase resilience and reduce the vulnerability of ecosystems and people in the face of the adverse effects of climate change.
Creating Conductive Environment for Development of Small Farmers in the Caribbean
Ms. Anika Aska represented GARD Center as a Panelist on United Nations Joint Programme Building Effective Resilience for Human Security in Caribbean Countries: The Imperative of Gender Equality and Women Empowerment in a Strengthened Agriculture Sector, is presently being implemented in the countries of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, and Saint Lucia. This programme is being implemented by UN Women, UNDP, ILO, and FAO with funding from the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security (UNTFHS); very interactive and informative discussion which among regional representatives and specialists. (See the video below.)
