Flooding Creates Call For Change in Caribbean

Posted by Matt Hopkins|30 December 2008

Growers in Trinidad and Tobago have at least temporarily abandoned farming after suffering huge losses in recent floods, according to the Trinidad and Tobago Express. Farmers harvested 40% less produce this year than the year before due to the heavy flooding.

Many blame the nation’s government, saying that when farmers are flooded out, authorities should allow for increased imports from neighboring Caribbean islands. Farmers also point out that the government is “flaunting the mega farms’ plan in their face,” despite the fact that they have been the ones who have been feeding the Caribbean over the past decades.

National Food Crop Farmers’ Association spokesman Norris Deonarine said that the Association had been trying to get a meeting with Agriculture Minister Arnold Piggott to discuss how to revive the industry. However, he says, Piggott has refused to meet with them. "Farmers simply do not have the amount of money needed to get back into agriculture," says Deonarine, who advocates a structured approach to the food crisis, and for government to deal with farmers’ concerns such as land tenure, as well as initiating programs that will put food crops on the market on a regular basis.

Deonarine said that once the dry season begin, farmers could return to the land and begin to produce crops again.