President of the University of T&T (UTT) Professor Dyer Narinesingh says with a global recession looming, T&T needs to focus on food security.
He was speaking to new students and stakeholders at the launch of the Basic Computer Literacy and Agricultural Enterprise Training at the UTT’s Chaguanas Campus yesterday.
“The greatest challenge facing the region and the country is food security. Whether we like it or not, we are facing a global recession and we must be able to provide food for our own country,” Narinesingh.
He said with the food import bill already at $4 billion and increasing, there needed to be innovation in agricultural development.
Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Avinash Singh, gave the feature address at the launch.
Singh, who is himself a farmer, said a country which could not feed itself would be made insignificant on the global scene. He said it was up to modern farmers to ensure the country’s food security problems were addressed.
He told the new batch of students that the People’s National Movement Government would continue to develop programmes to support farmers and was committed to ensuring that training programmes were available.
He said while young professionals were moving away from farming as a career, the Government would place an emphasis on the farming population. He said the lack of interest in farming displayed by young people could be looked at as a crisis.
Singh commended UTT for establishing the programme and Atlantic for its sponsorship and support.
He said agriculture accounted for about five per cent of GDP but said Government felt the agricultural sector should form part of the basis of the economy.
“We are quite clear on our role, not to be producers but to create policy and provide supporting services that create opportunities for the evolution of the sector,” he said.
He said T&T’s agricultural sector was at a crossroad and it was up to T&T’s young farmers to direct the sector on a path of stability.