Farmers talk about the glory days of agriculture, cocoa and coffee in a time when the country did not have oil and gas and services and manufacturing.
Today, agriculture contributes 0.4 per cent of GDP and of that 0.4 per cent, 40 per cent comes from poultry.
With the Government looking at diversification, the agriculture sector is getting some attention.
In order to contribute, the sector needs to create jobs and earn foreign exchange.
According to Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat, agricultural exports are not as high a priority as reducing the food import bill and creating job opportunities in the sector.
In rural communities, agriculture still contributes significantly to the economy.
While Rambharat said he has not set targets to decrease the food import bill, estimated to be around TT$5 billion, he was exploring the option of food substitution.
There is a significant lack of reliable data, both from the ministry and the Central Statistical Office (CSO) however, and this means the ministry must now gather and analyse data before making certain decisions.
“I don’t think we really know what is in that food import bill. My challenge is first determining the components of that bill. What are we importing?
“And then identifying those things that we should not import because we are capable of producing in T&T.”
He said as the country was a signatory to several trade agreements, it could not erect barriers to trade.
“We must allow free trade but at the same time, there must be fair trade.”
Rambharat said he believed the agriculture sector could create jobs and if not earn foreign exchange, decreasing spending on imported goods.
Jobs
“There are about 12,000 direct jobs in poultry. It’s a lot of women, a lot of single mothers from rural communities.”
He said in terms of import substitutions, the Government was also looking at proposals for a parboiling plant in T&T for rice.
“We are importing coconut water but we shouldn’t be.”
He said once farmers with the support of the ministry began looking at opportunities for agro-processing, the jobs would come.
“Across the country the farmers say they have problems getting people to work and that is because there are other easier opportunities to work.
This year will see the launch of a Community-based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (Cepep) pilot programme in agriculture, particularly in the rehabilitation of agricultural estates.
“Working with the Cepep company we have gone out to farmers and asked them to identify their labour needs.
“We will provide support through Cepep to expand cultivation, rehabilitate parts of the estate to improve the yield and productivity, and pilot programme in cocoa.
“With the pilot programme, estate owner would identify workers, who would then be engaged by a Cepep contractor.
“The owner would select the workers they know are reliable and Cepep would contract those workers.”
The bill for this project would be paid by both government and the estate owners.
“The estate owner will contribute toward wages and the workers are going to have a defined responsibility so when work is finished, the workers will move to another estate. The aim is to bring the estate into production.”
Complaints of high food prices
Amidst the complaints of high food prices, the ministry is also looking at ways in which the consumer and the farmer can benefit the most from the sale of crops.
Rambharat made the comparison of a 20 lb watermelon purchased in St James for $100 costing $25 in Rio Claro.
It may not be that local produce is more expensive but that it passes through too many hands.
The said the ministry was placing focus on a farm-to-table approach, to bring farmers closer to consumers and get better prices for both sides.
Rambharat said there was a proliferation of middle men in the agriculture sector, which resulted in consumers paying higher prices and farmers getting lower rates for their crops.
Rambharat said this was one of the many issues affecting the agriculture sector in T&T.
He said the other main issues in order of priority, were the issue of land tenure, agro processing opportunities, and support from the ministry.
The ministry has already started working on making it easier for farmers to access consumers directly, with the introduction of farmers markets such as the one in Macoya and the Wholesale Market in Debe, both run by the National Agricultural Marketing and Development Corporation (Namdevco.)
He said more farmers’ markets would be on stream soon.
“It allows the customer to engage directly with farmer and both the farmer and the consumer gets a better price.
“I want to improve the way in which we offer fresh fruits and vegetables, prolong freshness with packaging and more locally processed food. We need to find ways to extend the shelf life of produce.”
Rambharat, who said he was not surprised by the complaints shared by farmers, having conducted around 90 outreach visits in his first six months in office, said most of the changes in the sector needed to be structural.
The changes, he said, would surround increasing production and agro-processing, import substitution and the rehabilitation of agricultural estates.
Agro-processing is done on a limited basis by individual farmers and Namdevco has one packing house on stream for the processing and packaging of agricultural produce, though this is used mostly for export.
Namdevco’s Piarco packing house isn’t fully utilised and two others at Brechin Castle and in Tabaquite remain unfinished.
Rambharat said the pricing of produce was responsive to demand and quantity and unless the sector had some way of processing to extend the shelf life of produce, it would not be sustainable.
Processing at a minimum means peeling and packaging.
He gave an example of Pineapple farmers and specifically noted the Tableland Pineapple Farmers Association.