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November 2012 |
Agricultural Cooperatives – Key to Feeding the World
This year’s theme was “Agricultural Cooperatives – Key to Feeding the World.” It was chosen to highlight the role of cooperatives in improving food security and contributing to the eradication of hunger. Among the mandates of the National Action Food Plan of Trinidad and Tobago 2012-2017 are the reduction of the food import bill, and inflation driven by food prices, and improvement of the country’s food security status. There are many examples of local cooperatives such as the Trinidad and Tobago Goat and Sheep Society Cooperative, Cunupia Farmers’ Association Cooperative Society Limited, Citrus Cooperative Growers Association, Coconut Growers’ Association and Cedros Fishing Cooperative, which all play roles in meeting the growing demand for food on all markets. The FFA is collaborating with the Cunupia Farmers’ Association Cooperative Society in the International Development Research Centre (IDRC)/CARICOM Food Security project on the theme “Improving the nutrition and health of CARICOM populations by increased food availability and diversity through sustainable agricultural technologies.” There is a general agreement that smallholders provide much of the extra food needed to feed more than nine billion people by 2050. In Trinidad and Tobago about 87% of agricultural holdings are on plots of land of five acres or less. One of the major strategic initiatives for the FFA will be to increase food production through the discovery of new technology and the translation of that technology into valued added products via the promotion of agribusiness. One major area of investment in the new FFA is the relocation of the University Field Station to Orange Grove. The development of the 200 acres would involve commercial activities. |
World Food Day was commemorated in October with a display by the Division of Science and Technology, Food and Agriculture at the Alma Jordan Library, Faculty of Food and Agriculture booth displays and demonstrations at the Tobago House of Assembly Week of Agriculture, sale of produce from the University Field Station and a video: ‘World without Food Science.’