Food Production Minister Devant Maharaj says he aims to revitalise the agriculture sector in an effort to reduce this country's food import bill and rising prices. Maharaj was speaking with reporters after Eid-ul-Fitr celebrations yesterday at his ministry's office at St Clair Circle, St Clair.
"At the ministry I am examining what measures are in place and looking to augment and look at proposals with a view of going to Cabinet for some acreages to dedicate to food production and feed to reduce the bills for our poultry production in T&T," he said. He said the issue of rising prices and the recent hike in the price of eggs did not occur overnight.
"The issue which has been affecting food prices on a global scale didn't happen overnight. "The drought in various corners of the world has affected the production of grain which has a significant impact on poultry and eggs and which has been escalating over time," he said. Maharaj said Mongelo Farms in Chin Chin, Cunupia, opened a month ago dedicated to producing feed for livestock.
"And also in the Tucker Valley Farms, we are self-sufficient in the production of vegetables and inflation comes from value added to our products like wheat and feed for poultry and so on. We are trying to reduce that," he said. "We are looking at trying to promote cassava flour with wheat flour. This does not affect the taste if 15 percent of cassava flour is mixed with 85 per cent of wheat flour. The taste is no different and it would reduce the bill by 15 per cent at least."
He said the ministry has aggressively made attempts to re-vitalise the sector. "The food import bill did not come to $4 billion overnight and has increased over the years. The global crisis is the food security issue and has focused the attention of many on our particular situation here and exposed our vulnerability.
We have a number of acreages used for rice production and we have come back to rice production in the past 12 months. Because of the impact people are returning to the farm and agriculture as a viable alternative and OJT personnel with agricultural components. We have young people not interested in agriculture and this will be a thing of the past," he said.
