Yet another dash of hopes and dreams

THE EDITOR: It was with great interest that I looked on at the AMPitUpTT Next Top Agripreneur Programme. This programme postured as being geared towards finding TT’s best agripreneur.

The event was advertised as “A summit which will bring together young entrepreneurs and innovators involved in the local agricultural industry.”

How exciting I thought, finally agriculture is getting the recognition it needs in light of a $5 billion food import bill.

Logically, we would conclude that this would be a person who is engaged in agriculture, who is making active moves to support agriculture and advance the state of agriculture in TT.

Weekly, I checked the Facebook page to see what they were doing, what they were achieving. I’m not sure about the quality of the in-class sessions, but much of it seemed to be geared towards promotion. But that was okay I thought, once agripreneurs were being given attention, recognition and the chance to build.

Much to my dismay, I checked social media and found out that the winner of this competition produces ice cream and is so far removed from the base of the agricultural chain that one would find it hard to conclude how it can make a significant impact to the agriculture industry.

Its flavours are not all fruit and vegetable based, it does not produce its own milk. In fact, it would be hard to conclude how one person (from the winning company) could win such a competition in which there were many people involved in the actual agriculture chain from greenhouses to the provision of systems for farming.

By the company’s own admission on its Facebook page, the winner is “a frozen dessert company offering rich and great quality products. Its Trinidad and Tobago’s first and only online delivery system for frozen desserts.”

Accountability is key, and when such programmes are organised with little to no accountability it does nothing but demotivates youths who would like to go into agriculture because the mark has been missed and there is no real recognition for true agriculture talent. It is hard for youths to have faith in the system when the system consistently fails them.

Coupled with the difficulty to get grants to expand and to work towards building sustainable businesses in a time where the ease of doing business is severely constrained, this is yet another dash to hopes and dreams.

What a lost opportunity for TT. A programme that had so much potential has lost all its credibility with one swift move.

MICHAEL CHARLES

Westmoorings