Green Thumb - 17
Green Thumb - 17
Transcript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 While many may be excited about government's proposed
00:07 $300 million stimulus package for the agriculture sector,
00:11 Daryl Rambosad is searching for answers.
00:14 - You're speaking about another 300 million,
00:17 when last year we heard of 500 million
00:20 to improve local agriculture.
00:22 And I can tell you since coming here
00:24 as the president of the Agriculture Society,
00:26 I have not seen that money benefiting the farmers
00:30 of Trinidad and Tobago.
00:31 - The stimulus package aimed at supporting food production
00:34 was among several plans revealed by Finance Minister
00:37 Kam Inbert in its allocation of just over $1.2 billion
00:41 to the agricultural sector.
00:43 But Rambosad, head of the Agricultural Society
00:46 of Trinidad and Tobago says,
00:48 some of the benefits of a half a billion dollars a year ago
00:52 has not yet been reaped.
00:53 He now questions, where has the money gone?
00:56 - Yeah, I know that a percentage from that money
00:59 was utilized into the Namdevco Veggie Program, right?
01:02 Prior to that $500 million being announced,
01:06 if you can recall, there was $129 million
01:10 that was spent for a processing facility in Moruga
01:14 that they claimed that they was going to utilize that
01:17 to benefit the Moruga community and build agriculture
01:21 and also support fisher folks at the same time too.
01:25 That facility up to today is still collecting dust.
01:28 - Without proper accountability
01:29 and management of the funds,
01:31 the ESTT president says farmers will continue to struggle
01:35 with languishing issues.
01:37 And as a statutory body, he was disappointed
01:40 that no financial aid was allocated
01:42 to the Agricultural Society.
01:44 - My organization for goods and services,
01:48 for subvention, for projects and so on,
01:51 even stipends to pay the members
01:53 of the Board of the Agricultural Society,
01:55 we received a total of $0.00 and 0 cents
01:58 for subvention and payment of stipend of board members.
02:03 So to provide services as we did in the past,
02:05 which may have been assisting with access roads,
02:09 the silting of ponds and these things,
02:11 we received $0.00 and 0 cents.
02:13 - The Agricultural Society president said
02:16 instead of removing that from items
02:18 which are not locally produced,
02:20 government should have considered imposing that
02:23 on imported produce so as to provide
02:26 additional incentives to farmers.
02:29 Jassi Ramneo, CNC3 News.
02:31 (upbeat music)
02:34 (upbeat music)
02:37 (upbeat music)
02:39 (upbeat music)