MINISTER in the Agriculture Ministry Avinash Singh says Trinidad and Tobago has been making progress towards reaching Caricom's agri-foods strategy, which has as one of its objectives the reduction of regional food imports by 25 per cent by next year.
He was answering a question from Mayaro MP Rushton Paray in the House of Representatives on December 9.
Singh told MPs, "Significant emphasis has been placed towards the improvement of the agricultural sector through several initiatives."
He said they included revitalising and modernising key agricultural sub-sectors such as rice, cocoa, coffee and livestock.
Singh added there has been enhanced production of each of these targeted commodities.
"Rice: for the first time, through collaboration with NFM (National Flour Mills), rice farmers are benefiting from the provision of contracts and a payment of an additional incentive for grade one and grade two rice, which has contributed positively to the development of the rice industry."
The rice industry, Singh said, has also benefited from the distribution of 200,000 lbs of superior, high-yielding, disease-resistant rice seeds to farmers last July.
"This initiative renewed the rice farmers' interest in increasing their production acreages and was a notable outcome of this country's signing of an MOU (memorandum of understanding) with Guyana."
The MOU was signed in May 2022. The agreement seeks to address partnerships in areas of trade and investment including non-tariff barriers, agriculture and food security, energy, infrastructure, security, education, tourism, sports and culture; with the aim of developing strategic co-operations and partnerships for both countries.
Singh said the ministry has been working to improve domestic livestock production through providing farmers with artificial-insemination services and breeding stock.
He added that vegetable production is being improved through initiatives such as the distribution of 7,000 lbs of vegetable seeds to farmers.
On the coconut industry, Singh said the ministry is targeting the development of superior strains to deal with challenges posed by the red palm mite and red ring disease.
He expressed confidence that through all of these efforts, government is working Caricom's agri-food strategy objectives, improving domestic food and nutritional security and lowering the food import bill.
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