Agriculture Minister Ravi Ratiram says Government is moving to revive T&T’s cocoa industry through a major rehabilitation programme targeting 200,000 new cocoa plants.
Speaking at the launch of the Public Fruit and Food Orchard Initiative in Palmiste Park on Thursday, he said the local cocoa sector has suffered a dramatic decline over the years due to pests and disease.
Minister Ratiram said the country’s cocoa acreage has fallen sharply, and Government is moving to reverse the trend through labour support and rehabilitation efforts.
“Just yesterday we had a presentation at the Cocoa Development Corporation and Cocoa Research Centre where in this country we had over 90,000 hectares of cocoa planted. That figure has fallen to 4,000. And what we are doing at present is we are launching new programmes in terms of labour in the agricultural sector, where we will be also be going out to help in the rehabilitation of cocoa plants.”
The Minister said a major expansion programme is now being planned despite ongoing agricultural challenges.
“We are targeting at least 200,000 new cocoa plants in the cocoa sector, but it would have been affected by things like the witch’s broom. We have seen citrus being affected by citrus greening and all these other challenges facing the agriculture sector.”