Small farms vital to TT’s food security

Although it was billed as a major event, only a handful of farmers attended the meeting at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine.

Lee Yuen said: "Quantities of food generated on small agricultural holdings contribute significantly to national food security, and emphasis should be placed on creating more small farms." Quoting from a central statistical office report, Lee Yuen said small farms in Trinidad and Tobago supported more than 75,000 persons.

"Thus they contribute to larger numbers of persons having food security, and reduce the need for non-farm income to meet household food needs," she said.

Lee Yuen said flooding, lack of access roads and praedial larceny were among the major problems affecting agricultural production. She said employment in the sector declined by 40 percent between 1982 and 2004.

"When coupled with the loss of farmers, this reflects a movement of some 36,482 persons out of the agricultural sector’s labour force," she said.

According to Lee Yuen, not even national food security can ensure that all members of the population are food secure.

"Persons who are not themselves producers of food have to have the purchasing power to obtain their requirements from the available market supplies.

"These persons can be particularly vulnerable to volatile market conditions which are uncontrollable, negative impacts of bad weather patterns, high import prices, reduction in availability of supplies, outbreaks of pests and diseases, especially those which threaten human health, such as mad cow disease and bird flu," she said.