Bad fertiliser, seeds in farm shops
Farmers are complaining about substandard farm supplies in agricultural shops. They are calling on the Bureau of Standards to take action.
Farmers need to pay careful attention when buying seeds, fertiliser, and other farm supplies from agro-shops in Trinidad and Tobago.
This warning came coming from a farmer from St Vincent who purchases all his seeds and other agricultural supplies in Trinidad.
Last December, he became one of many victims of poor labelling and a raw deal from a supplier of agricultural goods in East Trinidad. Farmers in Trinidad and other parts of the Caribbean are now complaining bitterly about suppliers who sell sub-standard goods at inflated prices: “The supplies are low quality and all the prices have gone up,” one farmer in South Trinidad complained. Another farmer from Diego Martin complained that supplies, including seeds and chemicals, often carry wrong labels, exposing them to health risks and crop losses.
The farmers want the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards (TTBS) to get involved to ensure that only high quality agricultural supplies are placed on the local market. “They (The Ministry of Agriculture) always calling on farmers to increase food production.
“If they really want us to do that, they have to seek our interests and link up with TTBS, because only high-quality supplies will give you high-quality produce,” the Southern farmer said.
The problems with poor labelling first cropped up when Vincentian farmer Frank Campbell, who has been travelling from St.Vincent to Trinidad to purchase farm supplies for years, purchased a packet of cabbage seeds from a branch of the well-known agricultural supplies firm.
After seven weeks, and over EC$ 15,000.00 in labour and field preparation costs, Campbell discovered that the seedlings planted were not “folding” as they were supposed to. In his opinion as a skilled farmer, the seedlings looked more like mustard plants.
He returned to Trinidad and lodged a complaint with the company supplying the seeds. According to Campbell, the company agreed to send the imported seeds back to the company packaging the seeds for testing to verify Campbell’s claims, and promised to compensate him when they received the results.
The locally-based suppliers also offered Campbell a replacement package of cabbage seeds, an offer that Campbell did not accept until he was assured that the offer was not in lieu of compensation.
In mid-November, the suppliers wrote to Campbell to say that the packaging company “had no reports of similar problems from (that) batch of seeds,” and found it “difficult to justify any compensation for the grower.”
Campbell is contemplating further action if the supplier does not compensate him for the large sum he spent preparing to plant the crop of cabbage that never materialised.
A quick check among local farmers revealed that others have also reported problems with seeds, including “mis-labelling”, non-availability of certain types, and poor quality.
Farmers say they are sold seeds that do not germinate, and chemicals such as fertilisers are sold “loose” (in plastic bags with no label) by some agro shops.
Sometimes the farmers are sold the wrong chemical with terrible results. To add to their woes, all prices have been increased within the past two years. Increased losses and difficulty in meeting ever rising costs are causing some of them to consider abandoning their plots.