“Ideally, for less than what a large family would pay to have half a decent meal at a city restaurant, you can buy 105 breadfruit trees and plant them comfortably on 2.5 acres of land.”
In the name of food security, this is the resolve of Agricultural Economist Omardath Maharaj.
Maharaj commented earlier today at the 105 to Stay Alive Tree Planting, at the Agricultural Innovation Park, in Orange Grove, held to commemorate World Food Day.
The trees planted Maharaj said, apart from coinciding with World Food Day's 2019 theme-Our Actions Are Our Future, Healthy Diets for Zero Hunger, also served as a reminder to the nation that food security should never be seen as an “us or them” thing, but rather all citizens of T&T needed to understand it was an individual responsibility.
According to Maharaj, the breadfruit tree is like the gift that keeps on giving, apart from its multiple nutritional values, he said it was easy to grow and thrives under a wide range of ecological conditions, producing abundant, nutritious food without the labour, fertiliser and chemicals used to grow field or short-term crops.
Giving a brief history of the breadfruit tree, Maharaj explained, “These multi-purpose trees improve soil conditions and protect watersheds while providing food, timber and animal feed. All parts of the tree are used, even the male flowers, which are dried and burned to repel mosquitoes. Because of its multiple uses and long, productive, low-maintenance life, breadfruit was spread throughout the tropical Pacific by intrepid voyagers.”
Maharaj who has been lobbying for years for the production of and consumption of more local foods reiterated Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley's remarks on agriculture, made last week at the Raddison Hotel at the Finance Ministry's Spotlight on Budget 2020.
During his speech, Rowley said “There is a lot of talk about agriculture but most people who talk about it want nothing to do with it, neither farming the land nor eating local produce. Our diet is still largely imported salt, fat, grease, sugar and prepackaged food.”
Maharaj said an important observation he's made in times of disaster which he highlighted in both 2017 and 2018 after the major flooding events, was the heavy dependence on canned, processed and packaged foods, which were mostly imported adding to T&T's already estimated six billion annual food import bill.
Despite this reality, he says policymakers don't seem to have the “right incentives” to think there is a need to act with the required urgency and alarm on issues relating to food nutrition and food security.
“Food insecurity, vulnerability, and possible human rights failures are becoming increasingly synonymous with the rainy season and its intensity in Trinidad and Tobago. Climate is changing and our perception and engagement in the food and agriculture industry must too,” Maharaj contended.
Choosing to plant breadfruit trees before any other was not just an abrupt decision Maharaj said but was the manifestation of an amalgamation of agricultural stakeholders including breadfruitrees.com, Dean, Professor Wayne Ganpat, university students, advocacy groups and volunteers with the same vision-food security.
He said the planting of trees was also an extension of their partnership with the Roman Catholic network having committed 1,000 trees earlier this year to Roman Catholic schools, which was endorsed by Archbishop Jason Gordon.