SHAS­TRI BOODAN

T&T's dairy pro­duc­tion is get­ting a sig­nif­i­cant boost, Food Pro­duc­tion Min­is­ter De­vant Ma­haraj said on Wednes­day.Speak­ing at the launch of the min­istry's Farmer's Out­reach Pro­gramme at Solomon Tem­ple, Waller­field, Ma­haraj said the min­istry is im­port­ing 75 dairy cat­tle next month for dis­tri­b­u­tion to farm­ers at one-third of the cost. The re­main­der of the cost will be borne by the Live­stock Board and Nes­tle T&T Ltd. Ma­haraj said an agree­ment was signed by all par­ties on Wednes­day.

The min­is­ter al­so an­nounced plans to set up a pas­teuri­sa­tion unit in Waller­field to as­sist goat farm­ers in their pro­duc­tion of milk.Ma­haraj said the pro­gramme in­volves the min­istry's agen­cies and sup­port ser­vices go­ing to the farm­ers. He said his min­istry plans to deal with sev­er­al is­sues af­fect­ing farm­ers, in­clud­ing reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion of leas­es. In the last two years, 1,000 leas­es had been re­newed and the min­istry is fast track­ing the process, he said.