Call for CEPEP to get involved in farming

In the wake of hefty price hikes for vegetables and ground provisions, Tobago vendors and consumers alike have called for agriculture and farming to be included in the CEPEP programme. According to vendors at the Scarborough market, since the prices were increased during the rainy season to compensate farmers for damages and losses to crops during the floods, they have never decreased. The extended rainy season, they said, resulted in the shortage of goods and higher prices.

The vendors complained that they were also tired of having to travel to Trinidad to replenish their supplies, because they could not depend on the Tobago farmers to alleviate their problem. “Our farmers are too inconsistent. One month you may get provisions and vegetables and for the next three to four months, nothing,” one female vendor pointed out. As a result, they are strongly advocating that agriculture be made part of the CEPEP agenda. “Tobago was a big agricultural exporter. Right now there are a set of young people painting stones and planting flowers when they can be planting tomatoes and other things.

They are strong. Introduce them to gardening and revive agriculture on the island so we won’t have so much stress, having to go to Trinidad and maybe the prices would be more favourable,” she argued. They have also called for cheaper inter-island transportation rates for bona fide vendors. However, despite these recommendations, the vendors expect that with the onset of the dry season, prices would decrease within the next two months as local farmers have already begun to plant their crops.