Anyone for dhal and cassava?

THE EDITOR: Consumer Affairs Minister, Mr Danny Montano and Mrs Hazel Brown have both joined hands in a call for the planting of cassava to combat the rise in the price of rice. It is rather strange that no call has been made for an increase in the local production of our own rice to combat the rise in prices. Is it that we no longer plant rice since the closure of Caroni? It is true that I no longer see those lush rice fields adjacent to the Caroni River on the Solomon Hochoy Highway, but I am sure the Ministry of Agriculture must have embarked on other non-housing areas for rice production.

After all, rice is the staple diet of our people from the East and the Far East. Who would think of dhal and cassava or of chow mein and cassava? I can’t see our cricket and Carnival loving “Trinis” enjoying pelau made from cassava or peas and cassava. Is it that Vision 2020 envisages a change in our diet since it does not require much effort to plant cassava as has been articulated by Hazel Brown? Let us hope that this revolutionary plan to plant cassava would succeed in the flooded plains of Caroni and Naparima and the lagoons of Oropouche and Nariva.

IMAAM IQBAL HYDAL
Felicity