Plight of Balandra food

THE EDITOR: Jeho-vah created the first garden in Eden and placed the first man and his wife to attend to it. The garden was cultivated with food bearing trees and plants to nourish man and his dependents. Though Adam and his wife were cast out of the garden for disobeying Jehovah command, he however continued to till the soil under harsh conditions to produce food to satisfy his family nutritional needs. Sometime later, the activity was called agriculture and this ancient tradition has been going on from generation to generation. Here in Trinidad and Tobago agriculture is treated with indifference and farmers on the north east coast are treated with disdain from the relevant authorities, due to the lack of maintenance to El Corral, Langusta and Tabateau access roads at Balandra.

These roads were constructed to provide mobility to and from our land holdings so that we could become productive farmers and practice the ancient culture. We made clearings in the forest that were intended for food crop production. We cultivated them with coconuts, cocoa, coffee, nutmegs, tonca beans, pines, bananas, yams and mixed fruits to earn our livelihood. Harvesting, nurturing and tending to our land holdings were without hindrances prior to 1962, as access roads were constructed and maintained by the St Andrew/St David County Council at Sangre Grande. Today, we are forced to abandon our cultivated land as Adam did many years ago. We too were driven out, not by Jehovah, but by the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation and the Ministry of Local Government inability to provide adequate maintenance to those access roads. Over the years, weeds and trees overtook the gravel or asphalt paved road surfaces.

Also landslides and fallen trees remained uncleared restricting vehicular and human access to our landholdings. Food security should be the main concern for any government, but there seems to be a concerted effort to discourage us from producing food to nourish the nation and export the surpluses. We are fast becoming consumers instead of producers with the size of our food import bill annually. Currently, with the rising cost of food stuff, it would not be too long before malnutrition is part of our culture. We believe that some form of spirituality existed among those engaged in agriculture as we have to nurture, mulch and spend much time caring for our trees to grow and bear abundantly. 2020 vision will not be realistic without agriculture as an integral part of our economic development. We would be inheriting world status as consumers instead of producers in Trinidad and Tobago.

BERNARD
MALONEY
Brazil Village