Farmer asks Govt: Help us sell our produce

One Warrenville farmer is asking Government to help farmers get goods off their hands to prevent wastage.

Richard Singh, a rice and vegetable farmer, said he anticipated thousands in losses in the coming weeks, and millions in months to come, as there has been a dent in the agriculture sector due to covid19.

He told Newsday on Monday, he would be reaping crops next Wednesday, valued at $60,000 and he was hopeful retailers would buy them.

Singh said he was producing a larger-than-usual proportion of cassava, eddoes, corn, sweet potatoes and pumpkin.

He said, because of reports of farmers having to dump large amounts of stock, provision crops were more feasible because they have a longer shelf life.

“It’s not that we have too much food, we don’t have anyone to sell.

"Normally retailers would buy produce from us farmers and sell it back to consumers, but these guys can’t be on the roadsides so we have no one to re-sell for us.

“Some of them are happy that we're facing this problem so they can get the goods very cheap. It’s cheaper for us to leave it in the field. We’ll lose anyhow.”

He said as dumping continued, it would discourage farmers from producing more food. He added that, while he was prepared to count his losses, more must be done to help farmers so TT would be able to feed itself.

“Now is the time to boost food production and, outside of covid19, we should have been boosting it. The crisis kind of did well because people will eat local and this is the first time in years I heard people talking about producing our food.”

Singh said farmers were desperate to get the good off their hands where some were losing.

“The government has to step in and see how they can assist us because we need to keep producing food. We don’t know how bad things would get. We don’t know how long this would last.”

He said the government should turn its focus to ramping up food production.

“We are already importing 90 per cent of our food. I think the government should encourage people to eat local. They should use the food card and get them to eat local instead of buying a set of imported food. This will boost local production and keep the production of food going and lessen the wastage we are experiencing now.”

He said such a boost could also create employment and keep the agriculture sector alive.

"We are going to have a shortage of food because farmers are cutting back on production because people aren’t buying as much. The groceries are the ones benefiting.”

Singh was concerned that, in the next two months, farmers would have difficulty getting fertilisers or seeds.

“We have farmers willing and ready to produce the food once we have the support and the resources. Once we have our local food, we’ll be good. We need to feed our families and it makes no sense we have the money and nothing to buy. Countries will soon keep their food for their people.

“The smaller farmers will face real trouble. All of us will face loses but we need to keep the farmers producing food. I know in this time we need to help each other that’s why I mechanise operations to bring the goods cheaper.”

Zameer Akaloo, another farmer in Warrenville, said he had 50,000 pounds of watermelon on the field and some in storage waiting to be sold. He said if they were not sold soon he would lose $100,000 in goods. “I just want to be able to make back what I put into these crops. When I do this I can move onto other crops that won’t spoil as quickly.”

He too called on Government to reach out to farmers and offer support to encourage a ramp-up of food production in the country.

“Let’s not wait until things get worse. Let’s assume it will get to a point where we would have to feed ourselves and our livelihood will depend solely on what our farmers produce."