Farmers threaten to shut down agriculture sector

The president of the National Foodcrop Farmers Association (NFFA) told members Sunday they are too timid and urged them to stand up for their rights.

Terrence Haywood was speaking at a seminar at the Macoya market in eastern Trinidad to mark the association's 35th anniversary. Officials of the Congress of the People were present at the meeting.

However Haywood made it clear that his association is not affiliated to any political group. And he insisted that no political organisation or government could buy the farmers.

Haywood called on his members to demand that the government put farmers first and threatened to shut down the country’s agricultural sector if the administration continues to ignore the concerns that farmers have raised over and over.

"When 11 o’clock, 12 o’clock reach, you have people who want food to eat, but those very same people want to treat farmers as if they lower than dirt...what they don’t know is that we the farmers have the potential to bring down this country if we want," Haywood declared.

The association's education and research officer said farmers cannot progress until the government takes them seriously.

Norris Deonarine,said, "Our object is to produce food to feed the nation and all we are asking is that whoever is in power, they standardise the conditions for the farmers."

One pressing concern, he said, is security of tenure on their land.

"Anywhere you go, you hear farmers complaining that they don’t have enough land or they have no security of tenure on their land," he said, noting that more than 100 farmers across the country are still waiting to receive leases for their properties.

Deonarine called the government "colonial masters" who want to keep everything for themselves.

Agriculture Minister, Arnold Piggott, who arrived late at the seminar, told the farmers the government is doing it can to deal with the leases.

"The Government is moving to change the leases from three years to 30 years," he said.

When farmers complained about poor roads and inadequate drainage the minister advised them that he knew about the problems but commented that "Rome was not built in a day. We cannot build over 800 kilometres of roads in a day."