JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Friday, July 11, 2025

Credit Union Movement calls for food security programme

by

curtis Williams
1933 days ago
20200326
A farmer picks Hot peppers from a field in Corial Road, Princes Town, last weekend. 3/23/20

A farmer picks Hot peppers from a field in Corial Road, Princes Town, last weekend. 3/23/20

KRISTIAN DE SILVA

The Co­op­er­a­tive Cred­it Union Move­ment is call­ing on Gov­ern­ment to fast track im­ple­men­ta­tion of a na­tion­al food se­cu­ri­ty plan im­me­di­ate­ly af­ter the COVID-19 spread is con­tained.

Pres­i­dent of the Cen­tral Fi­nance Fa­cil­i­ty (CFF) Leti­tia Teles­ford said the cred­it union move­ment has praised the Gov­ern­ment and how it has han­dled the sit­u­a­tion to date.

How­ev­er, she not­ed that a food se­cu­ri­ty plan could min­imise the de­pen­dence on im­port­ed food dur­ing and af­ter the COVID-19 cri­sis.

“We need to de­vel­op and im­ple­ment a plan that will lead to the pro­duc­tion of three months con­sump­tion of short-term crops with­in a six week pe­ri­od and month­ly pro­duc­tion there­after, that could feed the coun­try in the fu­ture,” Teles­ford rec­om­mend­ed.

She added this will in­volve a co­op­er­a­tive ef­fort of Gov­ern­ment and or­gan­i­sa­tions such as the Farm­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tions, the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, the Uni­ver­si­ty of T&T, the Agri­cul­tur­al So­ci­ety of T&T, co­op­er­a­tives based in the agri­cul­tur­al sec­tor, cred­it unions and pri­vate in­di­vid­u­als.

Urg­ing for or­gan­i­sa­tions to come to­geth­er, Teles­ford said they must al­so max­imise the acreage of land un­der cul­ti­va­tion to so that the coun­try can feed it’s peo­ple sus­tain­ably.

In ad­di­tion, more lo­cal food pro­duc­tion can lead to a re­duced need for for­eign ex­change, she not­ed.

“In­di­vid­u­als own­ing un­cul­ti­vat­ed land must be will­ing to make it avail­able to gov­ern­ment and share in the re­turns. Sim­i­lar­ly em­ploy­ment pro­grams like URP and CEPEP must be re­de­ployed to land cul­ti­va­tion and food pro­duc­tion. Teles­ford ad­vised.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored