Farmers have been pooling resources to combat the severe dry season, but they are calling on the government to help them further.
“We were warned that this year the effects of El Nino on our country’s food production on other water capacities in terms of availability for food but also for household and so on,” said Dhano Sookoo, the president of Agricultural Society of Trinidad and Tobago.
The ASTT started three food crop projects at Orange Grove, Maloney, and Tabaquite respectively, geared towards ensuring these agricultural lands have access to natural water sources during the dry season.
“With that warning of El Nino and the effects of El Nino; less rainfall, harsh weather conditions, this is the intervention that we have initiated,” she said during a tour of Orange Grove farmlands on Tuesday.
“We are clearing up the water channels as you see behind me here, you will see the present condition of these water channels that is preventing water from flowing into the areas. We have a lot of reservoirs that are clogged.”
The project has been done in partnership with the Ministry of Works and Transport, who have provided three excavators to the cause.
However, the bulk of the funding for the project which began in February has come from farmers, who have contributed $1,000 a month since the projected commenced. They have raised $91,950 of which $89,600 has been spent.
But while she acknowledged the Ministry of Works’ involvement, she felt more could be done, if the Ministry of Agriculture invested in the project.
However, one farmer at the Orange Grove site was not fully convinced by the work done by the Agricultural Society.
Aquaculture farmer Kent Vierra said some of the work done the organisation could have adverse effects on his farm, which occupies 40 acres of the Orange Grove Estate.
“They didn’t consult me, they just do without considering whom it affects,” said Vierra on Tuesday.
Sookoo also took the opportunity to denounce claims that farmers were using unclean drain water for their crops.