Farmers urged to increase production to supply T’dad market

Patrons shop for plants at the mini-exhibition hosted by the Division of Food Production in Scarborough on October 16 to mark World Food Day 2017.
Patrons shop for plants at the mini-exhibition hosted by the Division of Food Production in Scarborough on October 16 to mark World Food Day 2017.

Tobago’s farmers have been spared the devastation suffered by fellow farmers in Trinidad of vegetable and root crops lost to floods caused by the persistent rainfall over the last week.

And President of the Tobago Agricultural Society, Murchison Neptune, said Tobago farmers must look at the reports of widespread destruction of crops and other agricultural in Trinidad and see it as an opportunity for them to supply that market.

Reports from Trinidad are that the recent spate of flooding had been the worst to affect farmers in 20 years and this Christmas season would see low local produce and high prices in the marketplace.

In some areas in central and south Trinidad, farmers lost 100 per cent of their vegetable crops, and overall, hundreds of acres of crops, including root crops, were affected by the floods.

Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat, in a review of the situation, said some farmers had suffered complete losses with their fields submerged in flood waters.

Neptune, in an interview on Tuesday, said there were no reports of damage sustained by farmers in Tobago as a result of the inclement weather.

“We have no reports of any damages… flooding in Tobago, most of the flooding is in Trinidad so the damages will be affecting Trinidad. We could look at this as an opportunity because around this time of the year, especially in November when we have a lot of rainfall, the farmers in Trinidad suffer a lot of losses from the flood.

“This is the time the farmers in Tobago should step up and produce more because this natural disaster means that the price on certain produce would cost more in Trinidad. As a result of this, the prices will be even higher when the produce comes to Tobago since there is less in in Trinidad.

“Because of the floods, things like tomatoes, sweet peppers, they won’t ripen before Christmas so it gives the (Tobago) farmers, who are really serious about farming, a chance to encourage themselves to step up and increase their production,” he said.

Neptune said Tobago farmers were lucky in that most of the land was sloping and therefore water will not settle to affect the crops.

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