Ministry launches pilot for soyabean, corn and beans production

The Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture and Fish­eries has launched a pi­lot pro­gramme for soy­abean, corn and black­eye beans pro­duc­tion with a plant­i­ng ex­er­cise at South­ern Main Road, Ca­roni.

The pro­gramme tar­gets in­creased do­mes­tic pro­duc­tion, re­duced food im­ports and sup­port for food and nu­tri­tion needs. It forms part of a shift to­ward a pro­duc­tion-based agri­cul­tur­al ap­proach.

Min­is­ter of Agri­cul­ture and Fish­eries, Ravi Rati­ram, said the ini­tia­tive fo­cus­es on re­duc­ing re­liance on im­ports and in­creas­ing lo­cal out­put. He said the pro­gramme aims to move the sec­tor to­ward pro­duc­tion and sup­ply.

The pi­lot will be­gin with small-scale cul­ti­va­tion and ex­pand based on re­sults. The min­istry said this ap­proach will guide plan­ning and lim­it fi­nan­cial risk.

The crops were se­lect­ed for use in food sup­ply sys­tems and agro-pro­cess­ing. The pro­gramme will al­so sup­port feed sup­ply for poul­try, swine and dairy sec­tors and in­crease avail­abil­i­ty of plant pro­tein.

The min­istry said farm­ers will ben­e­fit through par­tic­i­pa­tion in pro­duc­tion and mar­ket ac­cess. The pro­gramme will al­so in­clude crop ro­ta­tion and soil man­age­ment prac­tices.

The ini­tia­tive is be­ing im­ple­ment­ed with sup­port from the Caribbean Agri­cul­tur­al Re­search and De­vel­op­ment In­sti­tute, the In­ter-Amer­i­can In­sti­tute for Co­op­er­a­tion on Agri­cul­ture and the Food and Agri­cul­ture Or­ga­ni­za­tion.

Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion, Michael Dowlath, Min­is­ter of Trade, In­vest­ment and Tourism, Satyaka­ma Ma­haraj, and Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Health, Rishad Seecheren, at­tend­ed the launch.