RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

In a bid to re­vi­tal­ize the co­conut in­dus­try on the East Coasts where ero­sion is ham­mer­ing the coast­lines, Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter Kaz­im Ho­sein has start­ed dis­trib­ut­ing free co­conut plants to farm­ers.

It is com­mon knowl­edge that co­conuts as­sist in sta­bil­is­ing wet­land ecosys­tems and bio­di­ver­si­ty while co­conut groves are a bul­wark against ero­sion.

Dur­ing a Dis­tri­b­u­tion Cer­e­mo­ny held at the Min­istry’s Cen­tral Ex­per­i­men­tal Sta­tion in Cen­teno, Ho­sein gave away 1,000 co­conut seedlings to East Coast farm­ers as part of the Min­istry’s co­conut re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion and re­plant­i­ng de­vel­op­ment pro­gramme.

Ho­sein said he rec­og­nizes the chal­lenges and the un­tapped po­ten­tial of the co­conut in­dus­try, not­ing: "This sec­tor could at­tract a sig­nif­i­cant amount of in­vest­ment and for­eign ex­change in­to our coun­try and thus lend it­self as an es­sen­tial play­er in the eco­nom­ic di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion thrust of T&T."

Since the 1990s, Ho­sein said the de­mand for ten­der co­conut wa­ter and oth­er prod­ucts, in­clud­ing soaps, lo­tions and co­conut oil, has been phe­nom­e­nal, re­sult­ing in sig­nif­i­cant price in­creas­es.

"In ad­di­tion, co­conut prod­ucts are now re­gard­ed as ben­e­fi­cial to hu­man health and well-be­ing," he added.

With the re­newed in­ter­est in the cul­ti­va­tion of co­conut, Ho­sein said this will trig­ger eco­nom­ic, health and so­cial ben­e­fits.”

En­hanc­ing food se­cu­ri­ty, he says, re­mains a pri­or­i­ty.

" Tech­ni­cal teams of the Min­istry have been in talks with their coun­ter­parts in the Co­op­er­a­tive Re­pub­lic of Guyana. T&T will re­ceive 5,000 co­conut seedlings from its South Amer­i­can CARI­COM part­ner through this pro­gram. This ini­tia­tive is ex­pect­ed to com­ple­ment lo­cal ef­forts to bol­ster re­cov­ery and mod­ern­iza­tion ef­forts with­in the sec­tor," he ex­plained.

Mean­while, the Act­ing Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary at the Min­istry, Coomarie Goolab­s­ingh said the dis­tri­b­u­tion of the co­conut seedlings goes be­yond food se­cu­ri­ty. She said co­conut trees on the East Coast serve as a first line of de­fence against high winds and storms com­ing in­land from the At­lantic Ocean.

"This ini­tia­tive will re­duce the ef­fects of coastal ero­sion due to cli­mate change," she added.

Min­is­ter of Agri­cul­ture, Forestry, Fish­eries, Rur­al Trans­for­ma­tion, In­dus­try and Labour from Saint Vin­cent and the Grenadines, Saboto Scofield Cae­sar, who al­so at­tend­ed the event, reaf­firmed his com­mit­ment to achiev­ing food se­cu­ri­ty across the re­gion.

"Food must al­ways be avail­able, af­ford­able and ac­ces­si­ble," he said.

Al­so at­tend­ing the cer­e­mo­ny were Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture, Avinash Singh, MP for To­co/San­gre Grande, Roger Munroe as well as sev­er­al farm­ers.