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ONE OF the most pressing issues inherited by new Minister of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries Kazim Hosein is the need to improve local food production.
Mr Hosein would be well-advised to avoid some of the mistakes of the past: now is not the time for the same ole big talk we have heard time and time again. It is time for action.
Reducing our reliance on food imports from increasingly volatile markets need not involve reinventing the wheel. Nor does it require expensive mega-projects with high risk and low yields.
Our history is replete with a lot of big plans and hot air when it comes to schemes to increase output.
It is no secret that the mega-farm project launched under the administration of Patrick Manning turned out to be a mega-failure. Mr Manning’s lofty vision for the country was an agriculture sector that involved large, technologically driven farms and other large-scale agri-businesses that might take advantage of economies of scale. At one point, he even said expertise from Cuba would be drawn upon in relation to some of these farms.
Under Kamla Persad-Bissessar, a longstanding initiative to collaborate with Guyana on farming was given new life and a memorandum of understanding signed in which thousands of acres of land in Guyana were allocated to TT investors. They didn’t bite. And critics said there was enough land locally.
Mr Hosein should take cues from the failure of these large projects and focus on smaller, more meaningful interventions.
A good example is an ongoing initiative of the Tobago Reforestation and Watershed Rehabilitation Programme (TRWRP), which is seeking to get more people to focus on the benefits of eating and producing breadfruit.
“A commodity like breadfruit that is readily available to us can be used, harvested significantly and utilised,” said TRWRP project manager Maxslon Roberts on Monday. He noted breadfruit, like cassava, is versatile and can be used to boost flour production.
Breadfruit was spread to countries around the world during the colonial era largely because it is a highly productive food plant requiring minimal care. It is easy to prepare and has a good nutritional profile (it is even gluten-free).
Instead of getting carried away with the usual tax “incentives” and loans or grand plans and projects – the latter of which require vast amounts of capital and infrastructure – breadfruit cultivation is the kind of thing that should be encouraged.
The minister should also engage with small and medium private enterprises that are already in the field and are currently successful to determine what support can be given to scale up these enterprises. He should also consider using these success stories as models for more widespread growth.
Such approaches are essential given the current global environment. We simply do not have time to start from scratch.
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