Farmers denied opportunities

AGRICULTURE Minister Clarence Rambharat on Monday said people are being denied the opportunity to become involved in agriculture because people occupying agricultural lands are not using them for that purpose.

Rambharat made this statement before the Standing Finance Committee meeting in the House of Representatives approved a $695,267,700 allocation to his ministry.

Deliberations on this allocation took almost three hours and 20 minutes as Opposition MPs asked similar questions repetitively. Leader of Government Business Camille Robinson-Regis and Finance Minister Colm Imbert had to intervene to explain how the committee works.

Rambharat said, “In this fiscal year, we have to focus on enforcement.” He explained this was necessary because people who have been allocated land for agricultural processes have not used that land for agriculture

Referring to the two-acre agricultural plots allocated under the Caroni VSEP, Rambharat said the Estate Management Business Development Company has allocated 3,134 of these plots in seven areas in Trinidad.

These areas include Caroni, La Gloria and Felicity.

But he disclosed, “Of those 3134 parcels, only 512 have been shown to have any type of agriculture on it.” Rambharat added this has happened after Government has spent approximately $4 billion just in this section of agriculture.

He explained this meant 2,622 families who have applied to access these plots are being denied the opportunity to farm on them because the current occupiers are not doing so.” I intend as minister to address this issue frontally in this fiscal year.”

Rambharat identified praedial larceny as another top priority for his ministry in fiscal 2021.

While the police is the first responder to deal with all types of crime, including praedial larceny, Rambharat said his ministry supports the police’s efforts to combat this scourge.

It should not be distinguished whether the crime is against a merchant on Frederick Street or a farmer in Lopinot.” Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi identified land tenure as a common issue affecting his ministry and Rambharat’s.

“We are going to be filling this year, the Land Adjudication Tribunal and the other mechanisms to actually bring to life the registration to land titles act.” With respect to land titles, Al-Rawi promised swift roll-out where Tobago was concerned.

Robinson-Regis and Imbert had to advise Opposition MPs about the difference between various figures contained in the draft estimates after several of them asked Rambharat similar questions on matters he answered at different times in the meeting.

Rambharat told some Opposition MPs, they seemed to be unaware that their questions were answered by their own colleagues, minutes before they spoke.