Narine: Two acres of land can net $42,289 in six months

Speaking in the Budget debate in the House of Representatives, Narine was seeking to pour cold water over the Opposition claim that the two acres of land given to former Caroni workers by Government was insufficient for a sustainable income from agriculture.

Narine said he had a friend who had two lots of land — 10,000 square feet — and he was sending two children to school, and was making a comfortable living.

Narine said Government treated the Caroni workers with dignity and they got what no other category of workers taking VSEP obtained. "When the port workers were given VSEP they didn’t get part of the port. When BWIA workers were given VSEP, they didn’t get a plane. When PTSC workers were given VSEP, they got no bus," he said.

Noting that many of the Caroni workers participated in the various training programmes offered by Government, Narine said some of the Caroni workers would be engaged in farming as a means of supplementing their income earned from other sources.

He said the UNC was losing ground in its own backyard "and that was the problem. Because they (the UNC) had not done anything for their people while they were there. And now this Government is doing it. Obviously they (the Caroni workers) would support the Government. I have no doubt that we would have our two-thirds majority very soon."

Narine said the Caroni workers would have their lands and would be producing before the next General Elections. "And they will get the full support of the Ministry of Agriculture. We have already begun putting things in place to take care of those 7,200 plus farmers who will join the Ministry of Agriculture from the former Caroni Ltd," Narine stated.

For other farmers, Narine said Government had accelerated the programme of granting a 30-year lease to farmers of Macoya and Pasea "so they have collateral to go to the ADB for a loan."

Narine said Government, via the Lands and Survey Department, would be putting all the lands on computer. "We will have a complete picture of what each parcel of land in Trinidad and Tobago looks like on the computer," he said. He said 520 cocoa plants had been produced which would bear fruit in the next four to five years.

The country was also on the road to producing better quality citrus.