00:00Stakeholders at Atapa Budget Forum are calling for a shift in how government supports agriculture,
00:06seeing investment much translating to increased production, lower food prices and greater export opportunities.
00:13One proposal is to provide farmers with incentives tied to production,
00:17while encouraging the cultivation of crops that can replace imports and earn foreign exchange.
00:23It is something that is close to me because we need to reduce the food import bill.
00:28But we also need greater incentives for the farmers.
00:33And by that I mean incentives for production, incentives for rehabilitating lands,
00:40incentives for the crops that they produce.
00:46And it just, for me, is not just a matter of reducing the food import bill, which it will do
00:53ultimately,
00:54but it is also a matter of how can the crops that we produce, given the type of lands that
01:01we have, be used to export.
01:04Participants also stressed the importance of making locally produced food more affordable
01:08and ensuring a consistent supply for consumers.
01:12They say improving production and extending the shelf life of agricultural produce
01:16could help reduce price fluctuations and make food more accessible to households.
01:21If we look at producing for this country and bringing the price down to the consumers,
01:29what we have in the first instant is that the cost of living will go down,
01:35relatively to suit the unemployed and relatively to suit the people who are underemployed with the low salary ranges.
01:44We need to bring down the agriculture produced to an extent where shelf life is added to a lot of
01:52what we produce.
01:53So use stable prices. You don't have fluctuations.
01:57Beyond reducing import, one participant argued that Trinidad and Tobago should place greater emphasis on export-led agricultural growth.
02:06The proposal includes coordinating the output of smaller farmers, consolidating their produce, and preparing it for larger export markets.
02:15A similar thing must be true in agriculture.
02:18If we coordinate production capacity for export-led trust, it develops our capability here
02:26and acts as a hedge against all the things that make agriculture unpredictable, whether, you know, on the small size
02:32of our industry.
02:33The other thing that we can do also, just as an aggregate, there are a lot of small farmers.
02:40There is an industry for working with small farmers, collating their production, and exporting it as a business.
02:48That's what we did to substitute for the importation aggregate in the Trinidad.
02:52Stakeholders say a strong agricultural sector could help reduce dependence on imported food,
02:57improve affordability for consumers, and create opportunities to earn foreign exchange.
03:03Charlotte Histo, TV6 News.
