President of the United Farmers Union, Shiraz Khan, is warning that agriculture must be prioritized if Trinidad and Tobago is serious about strengthening the economy and achieving self-sustainability.
Speaking on the TV6 Morning Edition, Khan highlighted a proposal for a project called FarmPEP, an initiative he believes could make a meaningful impact on the sector.
00:00According to Cannes, FAMPEP is a farming and community-based initiative that was first proposed several years ago to the Patrick Manning administration, but has yet to materialise.
00:13He also holds the view that programmes like CPEP and URP are often used as political tools, suggesting they have far greater potential to contribute meaningfully to national development.
00:24Let us stop looking at using the CPEP people or even the URP people to just be a voter bank.
00:33If we're serious about taking the country forward, I think it is using those ideal situations to create gainful employment and production that will benefit the country.
00:46Because we just don't want to cut grass and paint stones, which are cleaning the place and having it look nice, but you can have that happening, while some other aspects of the CPEP people make it into production and assisting the country with the GDP.
00:59Cannes suggests that the concepts behind a FAMPEP and a CPEP can be used and deployed in more productive ways.
01:08He believes that if properly structured, these programmes can move beyond short-term employment and instead serve as engines for genuine agricultural development and community empowerment.
01:20Planting things like these mangoes, and if we could plant a lot of mangoes, like the rose mango, what they call hog mango, the long mango, the carabash mango,
01:31and we could grow enough instead of these jammu and all these bushes that are growing around, we can make some small little business with a couple of the CPEP workers and the villagers and so on,
01:43and create a little business and make kuchula and achara and these kind of chutneys and so on, and prepare it with the training from universities that's here, and export.
01:53Cannes also raise his concern over pre-deal arceny, which he says remains a major issue for farmers.
02:01He is calling for stricter enforcement of existing laws, noting that the pre-deal arceny unit continues to suffer from limited resources,
02:10with none of its vehicles operating at present.
02:14Cannes stresses that more must be done, not only to promote agriculture, but to protect those who work the land.
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