Eat plantain instead of rice, T&T minister says

The government of Trinidad and Tobago is talking about a novel approach to dealing with the food crisis and the high cost of importing items such as parboiled rice and wheat. Agriculture Minister Arnold Piggott told the Senate the plan involves cutting down the import and substituting plantain for rice and cassava for flour.

Piggott said high food prices are caused by “unnecessarily long supply chains for local produce, very unreasonable mark-ups, an inadequate production and marketing information systems.”

He said the level of dependency on imported food is unacceptable and suggested that that must change.

“We are proposing that some of that (parboiled rice) be replaced with plantain and that would target 6,080 tonnes on 1,216 acres of land. Wheat, we are targeting replacement by cassava and mixed crops and we are looking at increasing the tonnage there on 1,010 acres of land.”

Piggott also said sweet potato was to replace the imported Irish potato. He also defended government's plans for mega farms saying critics must understand that "these are capital projects, which involved a medium term type of cycle before they can begin to bear significant fruit.”

He said "a lot of work has been done in preparing these farms to prospective investors.”

And he said had some advice for every family: plant at least two fruit trees in your backyards.