radhica.sookraj@guardian.co.tt
With a food, fertiliser and animal feed crisis looming, mega farmer Joe Pires says trials on the cultivation of local potatoes, soya beans and sorghum are underway.
Pires, who is the Managing Director of Caribbean Chemicals, believes a Caribbean food security plan was needed where each island produces specific crops to feed the region.
In an interview with Guardian Media, Pires said T&T should have already reduced its reliance on foreign food imports as discussions had been going on about this since 9/11.
He said a partnership should be undertaken with the Governments of Guyana, Surinam, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic and Haiti which has a good landmass for agriculture.
With China announcing it has already started stocking grain, Pires said, “We are looking at several initiatives. We can grow soybeans and the roughage can be used to feed animals and chicken. There are lots of other crops we can look at. Sorghum is a crop that we can grow in the Caribbean. We are looking at that crop to bring into Trinidad, we are actually going to start trials into Sorghum this year and we are looking to see if it can be grown in Guyana, Surinam and Jamaica,” he said.
He noted that one of their suppliers have identified a tropical type that grows in Africa. He also noted that trials were also beginning for a new type of potato.
“We had trials last year, new potato varieties and we are continuing trials in December this year. It is a lot of trials to find the correct variety. The best time to plant is in October and November. Hopefully, we can instigate new varieties in 2023,” he added.
Pires said they are going to Columbia to see varieties.
He noted there are many other crops that can be grown in T&T.
“We can grow carrots, peanuts here. We can grow a lot of food that can be used for baby foods. But the leadership has to start the procedures for a regional co-operative plan,” Pires said.
He explained that it is important to be partially self-sufficient in food but noted that increasing duties on foreign imports was not the answer. Rather, he said citizens have to make the switch to realise the value of local produce.
“We could choose three crops per year or four crops a year and we can slowly make a switch. The Caribbean can feed itself. Trinidad is a dot and we don’t have land to compete but combine our acreage with other partners in the Caribbean and we can grow the crops to feed ourselves. It has to be the entire Caribbean. We cannot focus on this by ourselves,” he added.