The Na­tion­al Food­crop Farm­ers' As­so­ci­a­tion has launched a scathing at­tack on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar for re­mov­ing Vas­ant Bharath as Food Pro­duc­tion, Land and Ma­rine Af­fairs min­is­ter. The as­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent, Ter­rence Hay­wood said the de­ci­sion by the PM to split the min­istry's port­fo­lio and hand over Food Pro­duc­tion to De­vant Ma­haraj in her June 23 Cab­i­net reshuf­fle was not well thought out.

"I con­demn her ac­tions be­cause we have been see­ing where the agri­cul­ture sec­tor was mov­ing for­ward. You don't take some­body who has grown to love agri­cul­ture and its min­istry to put them in trade and in­vest­ment. That is coun­ter­pro­duc­tive." Hay­wood said farm­ing groups across the coun­try have been telling him that Per­sad-Bisses­sar had rubbed Bharath the wrong way.

He felt that Per­sad-Bisses­sar should have al­lowed Bharath to con­tin­ue with his agri­cul­ture plans, poli­cies and pro­grammes. "The whole agri­cul­ture fra­ter­ni­ty has lost mo­ti­va­tion. Al­so work­ers from the min­istry are ready to call it a day." Hay­wood said staff at the min­istry who looked at agri­cul­ture as me­nial and in­signif­i­cant, felt proud when Bharath start­ed to trans­form the sec­tor.

Sookoo: Give new min­is­ter a fair chance

Yes­ter­day, pres­i­dent of the Agri­cul­tur­al So­ci­ety of T&T Dhano Sookoo plead­ed with farm­ers to give Ma­haraj a fair chance since they are yet to meet him. "I can­not sup­port Hay­wood's state­ments. Of course, the farm­ers are shocked. We have to find a way to work with Ma­haraj. When Bharath came in­to the min­istry he had no knowl­edge of agri­cul­ture. But he worked with us."

Sookoo said the de­par­ture of Bharath has not been the same for her and the sec­tor, while the re­ac­tion of the farm­ers was one of shock and sur­prise. "The part­ing mo­ments were not easy. We know we had to let go and move on. But the Prime Min­is­ter has spo­ken. It is not who is in the min­istry, but the ini­tia­tives that we have to de­vel­op to im­prove the lives of our cit­i­zens."