Gone are the days when T&T farmers can contentedly produce crops or rear livestock in a quiet rural area having little contact with the outside world except for trips to the market. According to Agriculture Minister Vasant Bharath, if farmers want to survive they must acquire market intelligence through the use of information technology. "If we view agriculture and farming as a business, we must be willing to consider international best practice, analyse market trends and employ savvy marketing measures," the minister said. Bharath gave the advice during his address at the opening of the ninth three-day international meeting of the Market Information Organisation of the Americas (MIOA) at the Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain, on Wednesday.
The MIOA is a international co-operation network comprised of government institutions whose principal functions and aims are the collection, processing, analysis and dissemination of information relating to markets and agricultural commodities to its member countries. Bharath said the theme of the MIOA meeting this year is Developing Agricultural and Information Systems for Competitiveness and Food Security. "It is instructive as it seeks to highlight the integral role that marketing and information services play in developing a country's competitiveness and, in particular, contributing to our food security." Bharath said while the liberalisation of the world's economies had encouraged businesses to pursue overseas markets, it had also caused domestic markets for fresh produce to become more open to foreign imports. He said local farmers could either benefit or be crippled by the opening up of domestic markets.
"Our farmers and, by extension, the agricultural sector and the country, benefiting from or being hurt/crippled by these new measures depends on a number of factors, including size, market contacts and, most importantly, market information," Bharath said. "Therefore, there is a critical role to be played by the agricultural marketing organisations to link the farmers to the markets." Bharath told the meeting that the National Agricultural Marketing and Development Corporation had developed a comprehensive National Agricultural Market Information System (Namis) to provide market information to farmers. He said the Namis Web site, www.namisTT.com, was launched in 2007 and offers current information on wholesale and retail prices in T&T and some Caricom countries and information on volumes, production trends and forecasts.