Food Production Minister Senator Devant Maharaj is concerned about the general lack of interest by young people in agriculture and he says that issue, as well as labour shortages in the sector, must be addressed in the short and medium term.
Maharaj raised the issue in the feature address at launch of the Agriculture Now Training Unit's (ATNU) Workforce Assessment Centre. The ceremony was held on Wednesday evening at the Ministry of Tertiary in Port-of-Spain.
Maharaj said T&T's agricultural community was affected by a depleting workforce because farmers were getting older.
He said the situation was so severe that some farmers had to bring in Guyanese labourers but they left as soon as they found other employment in T&T.
Maharaj said one farmer paid $400 a day per worker to harvest peppers but those workers quit as soon as the dry season set in, refusing to work in warm outdoor conditions.
"They rather work KFC or URP for $67.50 a day," he said.
Maharaj called for a change in the ethics and culture of work in T&T. He said a new generation of farmers must be found since people could not eat "concrete and plastic."
However, he admitted, to make anything attractive to young people there must be a lot of money involved. He said there are many well organised farmers in the country who are earning high incomes that could support luxurious lifestyles.
Maharaj said the Food Production Ministry had launched a series of initiatives to get more young people involved in agriculture and is working on memorandums of understanding with Servol and the Youth Training Centre (YTC) aimed at vulnerable, at risk young people.
He said despite the challenges, the sector was growing and the food inflation rate had remained at single digits for the first six months of the year.
