Agriculture Ministers lack experience in sector

None of the Ministers of Agriculture over the last 30 years has had experience in the sector, and that complicates consistency in terms of policy, farmer and chemist Joe Pires says. Since 1984, Pires estimated, the average span of a Minister of Agriculture’s tenure has been about two-and-a-half years.

“The business of agriculture is difficult to understand,” Pires told the audience at an event on agriculture and agro-processing hosted by the TT Chamber of Industry and Commerce. “It’s not just looking at the food import bill and seeing corn as one of the biggest imports then saying, okay! Let’s grow corn! Our suggestion has been that the Ministry identify five crops a year and come up with a five-year plan,” he said.

Senator Avinash Singh, himself a farmer, attended the event on behalf of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries Minister Clarence Rambharat, and tried to defend politicians charged with making policy by shifting the blame of implementation to the public service. “Yes ministers come and go, but you have to have a strong public service to continue the policy,” Singh said.

Pires retorted, “Every Minister I’ve dealt with when they come in want to leave their stamp as the best Minister of Agriculture ever, and change the plan.” Pires also noted that if the dollar was devalued it would make farming more attractive, making imports more expensive and locally produced more competitive. Foreign exchange is critical though, for any business that wants to grow, and people are having problems. The Ministry also came under fire from farmers in the audience, who lamented the poor dissemination of information—especially for incentives and claims—and bureaucracy within the ministry that prolonged otherwise basic processes like refunds, applications and access to data.

Singh and his group of ministry technocrats tried to assuage the complaints but most in the audience remained sceptical and frustrated given the ministry’s history of delivering on its promises.

“We understand the challenge of delayed payment. I totally understand what farmers go through. It’s really based on available of funding.

Once funding is available the ministry clears that backlog,” Singh said, adding that in the current economic climate, getting access to that funding has become more difficult.