Rambharat: Agriculture Ministry too slow

Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat has once again lamented the ministry’s slow pace in dealing with land tenure issues. Speaking at the launch of the UN Decade of Family farming at the CARIRI centre for enterprise development, Carapichaima, Rambharat cited one of TT’s largest family-owned duck producers, Central Farms, saying the farm had been granted Cabinet approval in 2012 for an initial expansion of 15 acres which, in 2019, it had not yet received.

“In this case excellent product, good market and in 2012 Cabinet approved the first expansion of the farm – 15 acres. They still have to get a proper letter of offer.”

“At the heart of agriculture are these family farmers, and at the heart of farming is land tenure.”And with the ministry’s permanent secretary in the audience, Rambharat said the person who was always fighting the ministry is himself, as the minister had to become involved when the ministry’s staff failed to do their job.

He cited a Couva man who had been granted a two-acre agricultural lease and had instead put a warehouse and other non-agricultural businesses on the site. He said the ministry’s staff had failed to perform their oversight duties and he had to deal with the issue.The agricultural sector is “constantly on the move,” he said, as challenges varied from week to week: locusts, giant African snails, extreme drought, and, by month’s end – flooding.“Think about the battle about the pumps. That battle was to pump the water in. By next week we will be fighting to get the water out,” he warned.