As cane farmers mobilise for a massive meeting this week to highlight concerns about the Government's handling of a $210 million grant from the European Union, Agriculture Minister Vasant Bharath says an inter-ministerial committee has been meeting to address all of the farmers' concerns. Speaking with reporters at Rienzi Complex in Couvayesterday, Bharath said he met with farmers before to discuss their concerns, after which the Cabinet set up the committee to deal with the problem. "Currently there is a degree of conflict over what the cane farmers have said and what the European Union (EU) has said," he told reporters. "We have to utilise these funds according to what it was given to us to do...We do not want to be in conflict with the European Union."
Finance Minister Winston Dookeran is the chairman of the committee and Bharath has asked Dookeran to meet with the farmers. "My understanding is that this will be organised shortly," Bharath said. Asked what were his plans to assist the farmers who were thrown on the breadline after the closure of the industry in 2003, Bharath said: "My proposal to farmers would be to offer special incentives to them specifically outside of cane farming...That is what the committee is discussing." Asked to elaborate further, Bharath explained: "Special incentives would be like assistance to prepare the lands and educate them on irrigation, like ponds, fertilisers and access roads...Again, we need to connect them, with a market," he said. He added that the T&T Agribusiness Association would attempt to connect the farmers with markets.
"For example association will supply KFC with cassava and sweet potato...We are talking about thousands of pounds in sweet potato on a daily basis so its just a question of connecting them to the market," Bharath said. Meanwhile, president of the Cane Producers Association Seukeran Tambie said farmers will take to the streets in protest next week over the Government's handling of the grant. Tambie said that the European Union must also ensure that the grant filters back into the communities which once depended on sugar for their survival.