As World Food Day approaches, Tobago is sowing the seeds of self-sufficiency.
By ramping up agricultural production across the island, leaders aim to cut the nation’s food import bill while boosting local harvests, a move that blends economic strategy with a renewed commitment to food security.
Public Infrastructure and Transportation Secretary, Assembly Member Nathisha Charles-Pantin, explained that the project not only aims to strengthen domestic agricultural supply but also seeks to provide hundreds of jobs for workers within the Unemployment Relief Programme.
“This is just one farmer who has the ability to engage and train a lot of our workers here so that they too can be involved in increasing production in Tobago and we intend to continue along that way because we have a lot of workers… we took on 700 ten on ten off people so we are going to look at that model and see how we could boost agricultural production in several areas across Tobago.”
According to Regional Supervisor of the URP Tobago Agricultural Unit, Roland Murray, with nearly ten thousand plants already in the ground, the programme is set to deliver a fruitful yield for the local population.
“So we had was to get these crops on the way because you know the cassava is six to seven months because we have the world food day coming up in October where the whole of tobago will be coming out on different days so we ramp up the production in order to facilitate world food day and even in between and as my good secretary said before that we will be doing by- products with the produce we are planting at this time.”