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Guyana, Trinidad to partner on several large agriculture estates
Trinidad (CMC – The Trinidad and Tobago government says it ‘is moving to establish” a food security facility with Guyana.
Finance Minister Larry Howai, delivering the TT$58.4 billion (One TT dollar = US$0.16 cents) budget on Monday, said that with agricultural land becoming less and less available in Trinidad and Tobago, the Kamla Persad Bissessar administration is now looking to its fellow Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country to deal with the situation.
Howai said that the facility “would commit both governments to expanding agricultural production in Guyana through the establishment of commercial relationships for funding the establishment of several large agricultural estates in Guyana”.
In 2005, Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders agreed on the so-called Jagdeo Initiative, which was designed to advance the regional transformation of agriculture, ensure the region is food-secure and make the sector competitive.
But Caribbean officials have said that regional harmonisation of policies is one of the key issues hampering the progress of the Initiative.
At their 2009 summit in Guyana, regional leaders reaffirmed their commitment to providing financial and other support measures for agriculture and underscored the importance of agriculture for food and nutrition security and for the development of Caribbean economies. They also issued a Declaration promising to improve the region’s agricultural sector.
While Howai during his presentation made no reference to the CARICOM initiatives, he said the government here proposes to reduce its food import bill by 50 per cent or just over two billion TT dollars per year by 2015.
“Achieving food security is our top priority. We all recall the global food price shocks in the period 2006 – 2010 when domestic inflation reached an annual average level of 9.1 per cent compared with an annual average of 4.8 per cent in the period 2001-2005.
“The increased levels of inflation stemming from our increasingly imported food requirements have had a harmful impact on our citizens, particularly our most vulnerable, as they sought to manage the business of their everyday lives. Consequently it is proposed on a temporary basis that Value Added Tax would be removed from all food items except luxury items and alcoholic beverages.”
Howai warned also that another global price shock is on the horizon as drought conditions are devastating commodity crops, in particular corn and maize, in the United States.
“These higher global prices are already generating price increases in Trinidad and Tobago in particular in the poultry industry,” he said, noting that the government would embark on a series of measures to address the situation including the establishment of the facility with Guyana.
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