Farmers Call For Action On Land, Security And Imports Ahead Of Budget
With the national budget approaching, farmers are expressing what they would like to see in the sector to enable greater productivity on their part.
Farming Consultant Shiraz Khan told TTT News there are three pressing issues that they would like to see addressed: land matters, praedial larceny, and food imports.
He expressed satisfaction that land tenure issues are now handled under a designated Minister.
« Land tenure seems to be the bugbear, the Achilles heel of agriculture sector. Once we could get the leases because almost 95 per cent of the farmers that operate in Trinidad are squatters, what we call a legal squatter. So plenty of us don’t have documents for the land and once we get that land tenure and once we are comfortable with that, we could be able to seek funding and to do improvements and improve our production. »
Mr. Khan says another key issue to be addressed is praedial larceny, as this concerns revenue for farmers and their continuation in the field.
Another pressing issue lies with the factors governing the importation of food into the economy.
« We need to sit down and come up with a plan and get the data of what it is that Trinidad consumes and only give permits so that what we don’t produce locally could be imported. »
Mr. Khan says there are other subjects to be addressed in terms of agriculture, and he hopes they can be closely examined and dealt with in the budget.
