Above: a traditional farm in the Caribbean (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Could Jeffery Bruney save Caribbean agriculture?

Cornell University graduate and Dominican farmer Jeffery Bruney has big plans: to modernize Dominica’s agriculture with what he’s calling a “hurricane resistant farming model.”

“What really makes this system hurricane resistant is two things: number one, one part of the system is portable so when the storm is coming you put it away,” Bruney says. “The other part of the system that is more suitable for a larger, more commercial facility is a system which involves concrete rafts or a long narrow concrete swimming pool, filled with water and a nutrient solution. When the storm is coming, you lower everything and you cover it.  When you lower the water level, the plants are submerged into the system and you cover it.”

The model, according to Bruney, is based on hyrdoponics and aquaponics — that is, growing without soil.

“The nutrient solution which I use for the system I make. It is made out of some basic ingredients, molasses, oxygen and worm [fertilizer],” he says.
Part of the system includes a worm farm, which would form part of a special nutrient cocktail that includes fish urine.

“I see this as not just my farm but [as a] very lucrative agri-tourism product for Dominica,” he said in a release this week. “I think it’s a huge deal that you can have the first ever hurricane resistant farm on the island. I’m hoping that I can partner with the government on that.  I do not want it to be just something that I do, or my thing.  I would prefer it to be a ‘Dominica’ thing.”

Bruney says he has a small model system in New York City, where he actually does most of his maintenance through an app on his mobile phone.

The Dominica native is working to secure a patent for his concept.