By Paras Ramoutar, IANS
Port-of-Spain : India has offered its expertise in agriculture to Trinidad and Tobago to help the tiny Caribbean country boost its food production capacity.
Yash Pal Motwani, counsellor at the Indian High Commission, told a business session here that India is self-sufficient in food and is ready to take part in the development of a series of mega farms.
“India, by increasing food production and lowering the cost of living through a shift from high-priced imports to food grown on domestic farms has achieved three desirable goals: reduction of inflation, saving valuable foreign exchange and a growth in the economy,” Motwani said.
He said the government’s planned development of domestic agriculture should, with Indian involvement and that of Cuba, be able to achieve the three positives India has achieved.
Between 1845 and 1917, some 213,000 Indians from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were brought here by the then colonial government to arrest the decline of the sugar plantation. Agriculture continues to suffer immensely on the national development agenda.
Prime Minister Patrick Manning in his capacity as minister of finance in the 2007-2008 budget announced the participation of Cuba to develop mega farms aimed at curtailing the food import bill and escalating food prices.
Motwani noted that Trinidad and Tobago and India have endurable economic, social and cultural ties.
“Increased food production, along with the marketing of locally grown food to the wider population, can mean a slide in the imported inflation graph, that much less money needed to pay for any rise in shipping and other transportation costs, a greater retention of foreign exchange earnings through a reduced need to pay for foreign food imports. In addition, more jobs will be created in the Trinidad & Tobago labour market.”