The National Agriculture and Trade Show Committee 2026 Farmer of the Year Competition titles remained in the Cayo District this year. Courtesy of the Government Press Office, Saulo Mesh, Yoalma Pocasangre and Jeshua Tzib were able to tell us about their individual journeys. Jaleeza Roberts reports:
Belize is celebrating the backbone of its food security, honoring three outstanding farmers whose lives are rooted in agriculture. From a determined woman farmer in Valley of Peace, to a teenage agricultural prodigy, and a veteran farmer carrying on a family legacy, this year's Farmers of the Year represent a diverse industry. At just 33 years old, Yoalma Pocasangre has spent over two decades farming, building a livelihood from seven acres of land in Valley of Peace:
Yoalma Pocasangre, Female Farmer of The Year 2026
"I grew up in a family like working in the farm, my dad grew me up since I as a child, grew up working with him. I was like the one, I was going everyday with him to the mountain to work. I work hard with him like whenever we have to spray I would be there with the pump. Spraying the cucumber, the tomato and also whenever it's the cutting I would help him cut in the tomato or help him cutting the cucumber. If we have to do the irrigation, in those days I remember doing it with bucket. I would go and get the bucket and put out the bucket and that was more hard in those days, now it's more easy because everything have like change in the irrigation system but in those days it was very hard and also I went to school, I just have like primary school. I just went into std 6 and then I remember in my days in the morning I have to wake up early because I have to go help my dad first at the farm"
While many teenagers are still figuring out their future, one 16-year-old is already cultivating his. Jesua Tzib, Junior Farmer of the Year 2026, is not only growing crops, but continuing a proud family tradition of agricultural excellence.
Jesua Tzib, Junior Farmer of the Year 2026
"Well my great grandfather from my mom he won farmer of the year by doing Agriculture too and he used to grow cabbages, lettuce, plantains, bananas, all kinds of things and livestock too. My uncle is one too, my dad and I got that emotion, that way how he stated planting. He tells me that he plants lot of crops and I like to imagine myself how it was in those times so I could, I want to do like him when I grow older. So I try to do my best, to harvest a lot like him too."
"I was a little kid and I used to go with him under the barn and milk the cows and after that then my grandma makes cheese and then I go sell cheese in the evening so I like doing that. So since when I saw that, that gave me a motivation so I could continue."
With over 30 years of experience, this year's Male Farmer of the Year has turned generations of knowledge into a thriving farm and a lasting legacy. But he says one of the greatest challenges is the weather:
Saulo Mesh, Male Farmer of The Year
"It is very hard to predict the weather because some years it goes good in the weather and the following year the weather changes so it's hard to decide on what could come ahead of us. "
"Sometimes we do have some issues too, sometimes we have water shortages, that is the time our plants we get sometime we get discourage."
This is a sentiment also shared by the Junior farmer of the year:
Jesua Tzib, Junior Farmer of the Year 2026
"Well when there's time of rain, there's sometimes that there is discouraged by too much rain, hurricanes or tropical storms. Sometimes you have 8,000 plants of tomatoes when the rain comes, it will not say it will stop, it will continue and continue and when you come to pull tomatoes, you will just eat tomatoes on the floor because you lost everything in your crop and that's a big loss"
All three of them had something to say to others who may be interested in agriculture:
Yoalma Pocasangre, Female Farmer of The Year 2026
"My dad teach me this and he was the one who teach me this and he would always say, there is the food. If you want, you have to plant and there is the food to eat."
"It's challenging but you have to like keep insisting and insisting and so you could persist in life."
Saulo Mesh, Male Farmer of The Year
"I could tell them to get involved in farming, but sometimes farming is very rough sometimes. But I still encourage them to get involved in farming because farming you produce in what you consume you don't have to buy."
Jesua Tzib, Junior Farmer of the Year 2026
"My dad used to tell me, it's better to go plant in the soil, on the farm better because you see your money more faster and if you go study it's good, it's not, I'm not saying it's bad but it takes a long procedure to see your money back but as you come to the farm and you plant, in a month you're harvesting, you have your money there. So you start to increase or you want to expand your farm more or you want to do another, try another crop you plant and you try to see the experience how is it."
They will all be a part of the 2026 National Agriculture and Trade Show.
The National Agriculture and Trade Show 2026 is scheduled for April 30 to May 3, under the theme, "Advancing Smart Agriculture: Building a Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Belizean Food Systems"
