National fruit festival on this month

Farmers and agriculture sector stakeholders were at the Nu Image Simplex Complex in New Grant yesterday to continue planning the TPFA's National Fruit Festival 2015 to be held on the 26th – 28th June. The discussions included several matters: the fruits of our land, your children, for whom we must continue to create safe, family and community-oriented social spaces for their own growth and development, present weather conditions and the availability and cost of planting material for the sector.

In her message to the nation, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar S.C. recognized that "gardeners in Trinidad and Tobago consider the day to be good for planting, as it is believed that anything planted on this day will thrive. Both farmers and first time planters try to get the best fruit and vegetable plants for this occasion." However, Agricultural Economist Omardath Maharaj discussed the difficulty and cost farmers face in accessing sufficient quantities of planting material. He said that this is critical in "saving the spirit of Corpus Christi in Trinidad and Tobago."

Maharaj pointed out that as lands are increasingly being made available and other factors change, any unplanned or uncoordinated thrust on the agriculture sector may actually put more pressure on headline inflation, which is primarily propelled by food price inflation. He explained that increased agrarian lands will create a stronger demand for planting material, among several other important factors including labour. Simply put, as demand for both increases; the cost of production will rise if not met by a sufficient increase in supply. He lamented the fact that the Ministry of Food Production should consult with proactive farming associations such as the TPFA in their planning processes.

Omardath Maharaj also linked the compromising availability and cost of planting material to increased taste and preferences for imported foods, our inability to meaningfully activate any import-substitution strategy, create sufficient surplus to maintain export and processing markets and a constraint to economic diversification.

On the religious Corpus Christi holiday, farmers either try to plant crops or families are in their backyard planting kitchen gardens or fruit trees, as per the local custom. It is a traditional Roman Catholic celebration to honour the Eucharist, or Holy Communion? the body and blood of Christ. Local tradition holds that because of this, it is therefore the most fertile day of the year for planting.

Taken from Trinidad Express Newspaper