Trinidad and Tobago’s Food Production Minister Devant Maharaj is dismissing at-home criticism by farmers of the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which will see Trinidadian farmers utilising land in Guyana as baseless and politically motivated.
“Since we have announce the MoU signing and the declaration a year before, to date, I have, as minister, not a single letter, line, paragraph from any individual, organisation or persons pretending to represent an organization or concrete objections to this,” Maharaj stated during a press briefing at the Ministry of Agriculture alongside Minister Leslie Ramsammy.
Maharaj said that Shiraz Khan, the President of the Trinidad and Tobago Farmers Association, was “standing on a soapbox for political mileage” and the recent issues raised with land leases in Trinidad were being addressed.
Khan had told Stabroek News that despite being major stakeholders Trinidadians farmers have been essentially kept in the dark about the arrangements stemming from the MoU. He also said that Trinidad and Tobago has ample land for farming that is not being developed while the Trinidadian government is venturing outside looking for cheaper land lease rates.
Maharaj stated that in fact land leasing in Trinidad is done at TT$300 per acre (GUY$9,500). When asked by Stabroek News the rates in Guyana, Ramsammy said that those figures would have to be worked out but he noted that currently leasing is done annually in Guyana for $1,000 per acre as an average while in some areas that cost could be lower or could go as high as $1,200. When the MoU was first introduced in September, Ramsammy had stated that T&T farmers would enjoy the same benefits as Guyanese so it is expected that T&T farmers brought to farm in Guyana could be paying the same rates as local farmers. Addressing the non-renewal of over 8000 land leases in Trinidad, Maharaj stated that the current government administration had to individually review each and every outstanding lease and that the process was slow and bureaucratic. He noted that the evaluation of the current state of lands needed to assess what percentage was still currently under cultivation and decisions would be made from other data collected.
Maharaj stated that the previous government administration had purposefully ceased renewing leased for over a decade and that this was done to maintain a level of control. Khan had claimed that land leases have been largely ignored for 20 plus years but Maharaj made no further comments on the length of time or why this issue has been largely ignored by multiple administrations.
Farmers in Trinidad and Guyana have expressed frustration that they have not been included in the discussion process for the MoU and that while a MoU was signed there has been little disclosure surrounding the actual details other than there will be acres of land in Guyana utilised by Trinidadian farmers.
Both Ramsammy and his counterpart have been fairly mum on what the MOU actually contains and only recently did a technical team visit from T&T to work out the standardisation of policies between both countries moving forward with the initiative. However, even this has remained very secretive minus both ministers stating that this process was being conducted in a transparent way. At the press briefing, neither Ramsammy nor Maharaj ventured into what the findings of the technical teams were. Also not mentioned was where exactly this land was going to be developed.
The Minister of Agriculture yesterday said while a 10,000 acres figure has been quoted in sections of the media, no commitment was made on the amount of land to be used in this venture, since additional discussions are currently ongoing. It noted that the MoU between the two Governments addresses several areas, including programmes and activities; core areas of cooperation; monitoring and coordinating mechanism; mutual responsibility; commitments/ settlements; rights and obligations; and scope for termination. It added that should the need arise that any journalist wishes to see the MoU, he/she can contact the ministry and arrangements can be made.
