Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat’s decision to get a first-hand, boots-in-the-mud view of the state of agriculture is a welcome outreach for the community of local farmers.
The Minister has already made it clear that he intends to decentralise and refocus state support for the agriculture industry on a regional, community-focused level and his decision to hit the road to see for himself exactly what’s happening with the industry—is a strong statement of solidarity and real interest in the future of the sector.
There is no question that T&T farmers, for whom the adjective “beleagured” has been a familiar descriptive for decades now, will welcome a line Minister willing to meet them where they live and work and to hear their concerns while viewing their plight first-hand.
But Mr Rambharat, who was the unsuccessful candidate for the PNM for Mayaro in the recent elections, must not find himself tempted by the theatrics of politics, even with the best of intentions.
There are qualified agriculture professionals in his Ministry as well as no shortage of reports on the industry that should also command his attention.
Apart from his plans for decentralising the locations of support and administrative staff at the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Rambharat has also promised to bring more qualified staff into the ministry to improve its capacity to analyse the existing situation on the ground and improve the quality of support it offers to the nation’s farmers.
He has already made some clear and decisive moves in agriculture, appointing a new board at the Agricultural Development Bank and placing a public servant with robust experience in the Agriculture Ministry at the helm as chairman to guide a long overdue revamp of the often abused financial service designed for farmers.
In the face of widespread public concern about what seemed like a rash of wildlife killings circulated on social media after the opening of the 2015 hunting season, Mr Rambharat exercised restraint by sensibly planning to fill vacancies for game wardens to oversee the hunting season in progress. He has further promised a thorough audit of state lands in T&T with an emphasis, to begin, on lands which fall under the notorious Caroni (1975) liquidation.
Mr Rambharat served as the CEO of Caroni (1975) between 2002 and 2004 and will, no doubt, bring experienced insight into the ongoing challenges faced by the former employees at that institution, particularly those who still harbour a dream of being successful farmers.
Many of those lots were earmarked for small- and medium-scale agricultural development and projects planned for those allotments have largely faltered in the face of poor infrastructure; particularly critical support roads and drainage and there have been reports of agricultural lands being used for housing.
In seeking to improve the state’s leadership role in the development of agriculture, the Minister must clearly recognise his limitations and be ready to develop, deploy and support strong teams in the field who are equipped to execute, as public service professionals, the big picture design of his plan to evolve agriculture into a more widely-successful business proposition.