Shas­tri Boodan

Six hun­dred young peo­ple were in­duct­ed in­to the 4H Youth De­vel­op­ment Pro­gramme on Fri­day dur­ing a sim­ple but mean­ing­ful cer­e­mo­ny at the NCIC Na­gar, Ch­agua­nas. Stu­dents from schools across Trinidad proud­ly turned out in their 4H uni­forms, each re­ceiv­ing a cer­tifi­cate and an of­fi­cial 4H pin to mark their en­try in­to the or­gan­i­sa­tion.

Over the past decade, the 4H move­ment in Trinidad and To­ba­go has ex­pe­ri­enced steady growth as more young peo­ple grav­i­tate to­wards agri­cul­ture, en­vi­ron­men­tal aware­ness and com­mu­ni­ty-based skills de­vel­op­ment. While 4H in­ter­na­tion­al­ly sup­ports a wide range of youth em­pow­er­ment ac­tiv­i­ties, the lo­cal pro­gramme places strong em­pha­sis on agri­cul­ture, food pro­duc­tion and sus­tain­abil­i­ty. Mem­bers par­tic­i­pate in hands-on projects de­signed to build con­fi­dence, lead­er­ship and tech­ni­cal skills.

The four H’s rep­re­sent the pro­gramme’s core pil­lars of per­son­al de­vel­op­ment:

Head – en­cour­ag­ing crit­i­cal think­ing, smart plan­ning and sound rea­son­ing.

Heart – fos­ter­ing care, em­pa­thy and pos­i­tive at­ti­tudes.

Hands – pro­mot­ing prac­ti­cal skills, crafts­man­ship and com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice.

Health – in­still­ing healthy lifestyle habits and over­all well-be­ing.

Of­fi­cials said the re­newed in­ter­est in agri­cul­ture among young peo­ple is time­ly, giv­en the na­tion­al fo­cus on food se­cu­ri­ty and in­no­va­tion in farm­ing. Many clubs have al­so ex­pand­ed their ac­tiv­i­ties to in­clude home gar­den­ing, cli­mate-smart agri­cul­ture, agro-pro­cess­ing and com­mu­ni­ty out­reach.

Cur­rent­ly, 4H clubs across the coun­try are prepar­ing for a ma­jor root crop com­pe­ti­tion sched­uled to be­gin in Jan­u­ary 2026. The event aims to show­case young farm­ers’ abil­i­ties in crop se­lec­tion, cul­ti­va­tion and sus­tain­able pro­duc­tion prac­tices.

Pro­gramme lead­ers say they are op­ti­mistic that this new co­hort will bring fresh en­er­gy, cre­ativ­i­ty and com­mit­ment to the fu­ture of agri­cul­ture in Trinidad and To­ba­go.