As United National Congress Ministers and representatives work to include constituents in the upcoming budget, food security plans were revealed during a consultation in the Caroni Central constituency on Wednesday.
Minister of Agriculture Ravi Ratiram explained how agricultural costs have impacted T&T.
“Well, as we all know, over the years gone by, our food import bill has consistently been rising. Now, our food import bill has reached about $7.3 billion, whereas our contribution to agriculture has consistently been declining. And what we have seen over the last 10 years is that the contribution that agriculture make to our GDP, we would have lost about $200 million.”
He told the audience that the government’s mandate is to change that trend, reducing the import bill by $2 billion and increasing agricultural produce.
“As we roll out our plans, programmes, and policies, our mandate is to reduce that food import bill by $2 billion over the next five years, to increase our agriculture contribution to GDP up to 5% within the next five years, and, in addition to that, we have to focus now on using agriculture as one of the prime drivers of our economy.”
The Minister said that over the next five years the government intends to increase agriculture’s contribution to 5% of GDP. This sector, he said, will become one of the drivers of the economy, with it bringing in a minimum of $1 billion in that period.