Mapping the road back to the land

On Thursday, Riyadh Mohammed, lead consultant at Tropical Agriculture Consultancy Services, asked pointed questions about the status of agricultural state land.

Mr Mohammed wanted to know how much of the lands allocated to farmers was being fully utilised and which lying idle.

By his estimates, the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries is responsible for managing 64,082 parcels of land, or 151,339 hectares, 52 per cent of the land in Trinidad and Tobago.

Of that acreage, 31 per cent is supposed to be suitable for agriculture. It is a limited resource that is also underutilised. Do we know how much of our farmland is in productive use?

It’s a relevant question to ask, given the government’s stated intention to push for an expansion of the agriculture sector.

The Agriculture Ministry got $758 million in the last budget. The Roadmap to Recovery Committee called for an allocation of $500 million for the agriculture sector, emphasising technology adoption, increased production and an emphasis on improving food security.

The government delivered that $500 million stimulus package in the dramatically increased $1.198 billion agri-sector allocation in the budget.

But without clear planning and a results-focused approach, that cash injection won’t be enough to increase the contribution of agriculture to TT’s GDP.

The government must focus on how this money will be spent for the greatest short-term impact.

For decades, the emphasis has been on improving access to funding, via the Agricultural Development Bank and on the marketplace, through Namdevco.

The Prime Minister opened a $90 million agro-processing and light industry park in Moruga in July.

But what farmers actually do all year long, between getting funding and bringing goods to the marketplace, has received inadequate attention.

They have long called for improved infrastructure to deliver the irrigation systems, electricity and access roads necessary to make efficient use of the country’s farmlands.

The history of farming in TT tracks closely with the spotty support that farmers experience.

Until the 1970s, the island had experienced agriculture largely as monoculture, large estates growing sugar cane and to a lesser extent cocoa, citrus, coffee and coconuts.

That emphasis on a single high-return product was replaced by oil and later, natural gas, and efforts at diversification died on the vine.

To make a change in agriculture and improve food security, the government's plans must include improvements to the core infrastructure on farmland and commit to strategically mapping its available agricultural resources.

Production efficiency, market relevance and technology-assisted automation must be hallmarks of any effort to revamp agriculture.

It’s pointless asking people to go back to the land: that never works. The goal must be to encourage them to invest in the business of agriculture.