RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

In­ter­na­tion­al econ­o­mists are pre­dict­ing a glob­al re­ces­sion by 2023/2024 and agri­cul­tur­al econ­o­mist Omar­dath Ma­haraj wants fam­i­lies to be pre­pared if food and med­i­cines be­come scarce.

While con­ver­sa­tions are now steered to­wards al­ter­na­tive types of flour, based on the steep in­crease in wheat flour, Ma­haraj says cit­i­zens can start look­ing to­wards re­duc­ing their food bill by plant­i­ng back­yard gar­dens and grow­ing ground pro­vi­sions.

Hav­ing al­ready launched a bread­fruit ini­tia­tive that saw the dis­tri­b­u­tion of 6,700 free bread­fruit trees since 2015, Ma­haraj is now ad­vis­ing fam­i­ly heads to plant fig trees, toma­toes, bread­fruit trees, av­o­ca­do trees and any oth­er pro­duce, based on land avail­abil­i­ty.

"We were prepar­ing for this sit­u­a­tion years ago be­cause we rec­og­nized we are too de­pen­dent on for­eign im­ports. We had called for a bread­fruit for­est to be plant­ed at the Queens Park Sa­van­nah and Wood­ford Square and every oth­er pub­lic place so if food be­comes scarce, peo­ple will have free ac­cess to bread­fruit," Ma­haraj added.

He said this is why he start­ed the yard mar­ket so he can teach fam­i­lies how to grow their own food.

While the gov­ern­ment has failed to mon­e­tize and com­mer­cial­ize al­ter­na­tive flour as pro­mot­ed by the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies Food and Agri­cul­ture Fac­ul­ty, Ma­haraj said T&T was on the brink of a food cri­sis.

"Peo­ple joke say­ing it's on­ly flour, oil and rice that have gone up but this im­pacts on the pock­ets of every fam­i­ly. Spend­ing more mon­ey on food means that you have less mon­ey to spend on leisure, a car, and cloth­ing. It means the qual­i­ty of life will de­cline and so will the stan­dard of liv­ing."

Ma­haraj said that based on the in­crease in home­less­ness and des­ti­tu­tion, T&T was al­ready start­ing to ex­pe­ri­ence a so­cial cri­sis.

"There is a wave of beg­gars on the street and al­so we are see­ing more chil­dren out of school. It is some­thing that has to be dealt with. If the gov­ern­ment fails to im­ple­ment poli­cies to deal with this, we as the fam­i­ly must take charge of our homes and put sys­tems in place to safe­guard our­selves."

Say­ing every­one must pre­pare for hard times ahead, Ma­haraj said every in­di­vid­ual must look at their tal­ents and find ways to mon­e­tize them. He not­ed that many peo­ple went in­to bak­ing to sup­ple­ment their in­come but with the steep flour in­creas­es, this may not be a vi­able op­tion any­more.

"My ad­vice is to con­sol­i­date your in­come and reignite that spir­it of en­tre­pre­neuri­al­ism. Find ways to learn a skill that could re­duce your spend­ing. Start pro­duc­ing some of the things that you are eat­ing. Many peo­ple live in apart­ments. You can still plant some­thing, even if it is in a buck­et. It is a cry­ing shame that HDC pre­vents peo­ple from en­gag­ing in food pro­duc­tion if they have an HDC home," Ma­haraj added.

He not­ed that every­one has to work to­geth­er to make it through the cri­sis. 

Ma­haraj al­so said the glob­al econ­o­my will con­tract mod­er­ate­ly to fair­ly se­vere­ly over the next three years and small is­land de­vel­op­ing states will feel it hard­er as it re­lates to ac­cess to food, med­i­cine, and cloth­ing.

He not­ed that while peo­ple feel dis­en­chant­ed and de­mo­ti­vat­ed with un­em­ploy­ment, the harsh eco­nom­ic times should be seen as an op­por­tu­ni­ty.

"To­geth­er we have to find ways to re­duce our spend­ing, start new busi­ness ideas, de­vel­op new skills, pro­duce our food and stay healthy as a fam­i­ly, com­mu­ni­ty and coun­try," he added.