T&T does not produce enough food to feed its population.
In fact, if women were to take the advice given by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to “learn to peel cassava” in an attempt to cut spending, they would quickly run out of the commodity.
This is because local farmers produce a little over 50 per cent of the market’s demand for cassava and in the case of plantain, this figure decreases to 11 per cent.
To make up the shortfall in commercial and industrial supply locally, T&T imports these products contributing to a food bill that is way above TT$4 billion.
Of the ten agricultural commodities produced locally, only one, sweet potato, meets and surpasses public demand.
For several years, successive governments have encouraged citizens to buy local, with Finance Minister Colm Imbert being the latest to give the advice in relation to conserving foreign exchange.
Last week a supermarket owner made the prediction that within the next few months T&T would begin a food crisis due to the difficulties faced accessing foreign exchange to import foreign goods.
According to president of the Agricultural Society of T&T (ASTT) Dhano Sookoo, encouraging people to buy local is a futile endeavour if meeting the demand of the local population is not a reality.
In an interview, on a Maloney farm, last week, Sookoo said it was impossible for local farmers and agro-processors to meet the needs of the national population at the current rates of agricultural production in this country.
In a sector as dynamic as agriculture, the reasons for the failure of this country to meet its agricultural demands are many.
Sookoo said, however, it can be accomplished but only through the creation and implementation of policy directed at sector growth.
“We have heard about diversification but how can we diversify the economy if the strategies aren’t being put in place.”
Farmers need land, water, equipment and capital, legislation to strengthen the sector as well as workers who aren’t afraid of hot sun and hard labour.
No access to land
The Government allows farmers access to state lands for an annual rental fee and relevant taxes, with the stipulation that at least 75 per cent of the land be used for agricultural production.
According to one farmer, who chose to remain anonymous, accessing state land for agriculture has become a process filled with corruption and high prices.
The corruption surrounds land titles.
“We are supposed to get titles for lands for agriculture from the land administration division but that is now like a real estate agency.
“What happens is we go for the title and they give us a runaround or we are told to make it easier we have to pay the officer a few thousand dollars.
“Sometimes an officer will tell you to go to somebody else who has the titles for land but isn’t a farmer and we rent from him and pay a few thousand dollars per crop.”
Asked about this issue, Minister in the Ministry of Agriculture, Avinash Singh, said he was unaware of such issues but added that when his party entered Government, the post of Commissioner of State Lands was vacant.
“That hasn’t been brought to my attention as yet. When we came in for a period of time there was no commissioner and a lot of activities were not monitored or maintained. A couple of weeks ago, a commissioner was appointed to act. He is on the job.”
The situation isn’t new.
In 2006, the ASTT mapped the farming communities in T&T to have the land situation regularised.
At the time, they found dead people’s names on the database and people who had migrated. Over 100 farmers received their tenancy documents.
While Singh was unaware of the issue, Sookoo said the corrupt practices were very real.
“The issue of state land for agriculture in the past 15 years or so has been a big real estate business for these agriculture officers and there has been no mechanism within the framework of the Ministry of Agriculture land management unit that is functional that can treat with issues like that once identified,” Sookoo said.
Sookoo said it had become the norm within the land management division for these public officers to be trading with state lands, resulting in people who were not farmers receiving titles for agriculture lands which remain uncultivated.
“These young farmers are going into agriculture which has a high intensive capital investment and they are being told to pay for state land which is supposed to be free for agricultural production.
“Your investment is supposed to start with your plants but now you have additional capital expenditure having to pay for land in many instances. I am not saying in all instances. That is where the challenge starts, access to land.
“Many times, the farmer planting the crop have to pay rental for the land and the man who is profiting is the man who doesn’t farm because he is a real estate agent.”
She identified Orange Grove and some parts of Sangre Grande as having cases of agricultural land being distributed to non-farmers.
In 2004, the Central Statistical Office (CSO) agricultural census said this country had 19,143 farmers.
In 2006, 2007 and later years, farmers were removed from lands for industrial development and housing.
“Once you lose your land, your access to land, your production decreases and then you start having increased food bill by way of importation of food.
“You start to get unhealthy food and unhealthy people and social issues coming across. It’s a whole chain and when one part of the agriculture value chain is affected the rest collapses.
“When you decrease your production and decrease your processing, you decrease your export and increase your import which increases your demand on foreign exchange, so it is not just about going out there and planting, it is about understanding your economy and how it functions and the agriculture sector is the most dynamic of all sectors in the country,” Sookoo said.
Continuing next week