I have been following the recent letters and posts about the recession and the long touted need for diversification and the even longer touted need for agriculture to be a major mechanism for diversification.
It was relevant then and it is relevant now. Food production for self-use, local consumption and export will always be relevant.
But it is a new time now and the policymakers and technocrats need to get in alignment with the future and not be stuck in the past. The future of food production lies within the myriad of new technologies available. The future of food is technology. In other words, we do not have to continuously be kept back because land is an issue. Granted there is the need for land to do field crop agriculture but there are other methods available for all categories of production.
Instead of this apparent never-ending quibbling over what state the country is in and who caused it…is it not a great time for the country to reboot? Perhaps it is inevitable and that time is now. It’s a great opportunity to show ourselves our resilience and our entrepreneurial spirit. Now is not the time to focus on our differences but to remember that even before political allegiance and alliance, we are citizens of T&T.
Our country has all the necessary components to make a success of any sector that we want to. In agriculture, we have excellent academics within our universities and we have equally excellent entrepreneurs as food producers, processers, input suppliers and other service providers. We have the older generation of experience and every year we have new graduates at all levels who want to be a part of the sector. Just this week I met a young man working at odd jobs in garden shops and saving his money to be able to do a Diploma in Agriculture. The interest is there but unharnessed. What is missing?
We are sadly lacking effective management and the multi-disciplinary teams to create and action the plans with efficient management of our resources to meet the goals. But even before that, we are sadly lacking in strategic, visionary and humble leadership.
It is now that we need those who understand that the developmental projects already established should be screened by an appropriate multi-disciplinary team for relevance and continue to be funded. New projects should be established to do the same. This is not the time to stop all projects and spending but rather to make it more focused to meet our goals.
It is said that if you want to plan for a year, plant rice; if you want to plan for 10 years, plant trees; if you want to plan for 100 years, educate children. Education is the key, but not just education—technical vocational education infused with other critical elements of human development.
Despite all that plagues us right now, there is an answer. Whether you like former Minister Karim or not, his accomplishment in the area of technical-vocational training was visionary. The framework for building a quality workforce resides within the structure of the National Training Agency. This coupled with specific teams and networking with stakeholders can help each sector by sector progress.
For the agriculture sector, one of the answers is grounded in the creation of micro and small agro-businesses (rural and urban) using new technologies, along the value chain using the NTA framework for training. In this way, the new graduates, paid for by our tax dollars, will not be lost to non-agriculture jobs and eventually exported to other countries—another financial drain. These new businesses will generate income and create employment.
But it all needs very careful planning, execution and monitoring and evaluation.
Very achievable.
Nisha Singh,
Curepe