TNTInsider » Agriculture

Cocoa farmers worried about global economic crisis

Sheldon Osborne — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:45:40 +0000

Cocoa farmers have benefited from the increase in world prices. However, they are looking at the troubled global economy and the unavailability of labour in Trinidad and Tobago.

Cocoa farmers in Trinidad and Tobago have been smiling all the way to the bank in recent times as they have been benefiting from a revival driven by an increase in the price of the commodity on the world market.

Trinidad cocoa farmers are clearing and rehabilitating formerly abandoned cocoa fields, and those that kept up production during the last two decades despite great odds, are now replacing their oldest trees, planting new fields, and increasing production.

But the farmers’ smiles are turning into worried frowns as many feel the gradual and long awaited revival is now threatened by the global economic crisis.

Despite assurances by the ministers responsible for Finance and Agriculture, the farmers fear that prices could drop even lower that they were before the recent increase that prompted the Government here in Trinidad and Tobago to increase the price of the commodity paid to local farmers. In Trinidad and Tobago, the sale of the crop and prices are strictly controlled by the Government through the Cocoa and Coffee Industry Board.

When the price per kilogramme was increased last year, many farmers, some of them in their 60s and 70s, returned to their fields with renewed vigour, and for the first time in decades, there was even a spark of interest in the crop from young people.

However, most cocoa farmers are quick to point out that the many problems faced by the cocoa industry in Trinidad continue to exist, and they are truly worried about the possibility of the economic crisis having a delayed effect on prices, causing them to drop as demand slides.

One farmer told Tntinsider that the economic crisis “could not have come at a worst time: “After years, things finally start to pick up, and now we have to face the possibility of a drop in demand,” he said.

He also reminded that most of the challenges faced by cocoa farmers in Trinidad are still present. At the World Cocoa Conference, which was held in Trinidad recently, TT’s Agriculture Minister Arnold Piggott pointed out that while local cocoa farmers are benefiting from the increase in price paid, they still have to deal with problems that seem to be built-in to the industry: Low productivity, low acreage, losses due to pests and diseases, and high production costs.

But interviews with cocoa farmers in Rio Claro, Poole, and Tableland, revealed that the minister missed out one important challenge, one that he could help them deal with-labour.

All the farmers the Tntinsider spoke to admitted that labour is the hardest input to find and to pay for.

Even with higher prices, cocoa farmers say they could barely afford to pay workers to do the labour-intensive tasks of picking, cutting, and curing of cocoa beans.

On many estates large and small, all of the work must be done by the farmer. Those with family members willing to help are the lucky ones, as the majority of cocoa farmers are over 60.

Bernadette Portillo, a cocoa farmer in South Trinidad, complained that it was difficult to get labour, even for basic maintenance: “They know how hard it is to get people, even to cutlass, so they make plenty old-style on farmers,” she complained.

With these challenges still present, cocoa farmers are nervously watching global economic trends.

One cocoa farmer believes that the only way forward under the current conditions is for Government to give incentives to local manufacturers, and maybe even the farmers themselves to organise into co-operatives to increase the production of local finished chocolate products such as candies, edible chocolates, and cocoa powder for the local and export markets. He also suggested that Government should make land available for expansion of smaller acreages when the need arises.

More than one cocoa farmer suggested that Government should make subsidised labour available through some arrangement with CEPEP, which would go a long way towards increasing productivity, reducing the cost and effort needed to acquire labour, and would result in higher profits and more interest in cocoa production by young farmers.

Hillside farming, living room floods

Sheldon Osborne — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:54:39 +0000

Farmers are forced to grow crops on the hills of the Northern Range. Food ends up in your kitchen but your entire house is flooded.

The hills of the Northern Range are alive with activity as food farmers, at the urging of Agriculture Minister Arnold Piggott, strive to feed the nation.

The rapid development of lands along the East-West Corridor has caused many farmers to be pushed on to the marginal lands of the Northern Range. The availability of arable land, secure tenure, and the annual loss of crops due to bad weather conditions and other natural causes are major problems faced by food crop farmers.

While the farmers should be commended for producing food despite great odds, it must be remembered that there is a high ecological cost attached to removing tree cover from the hillsides. The floods caused by this type of activity lead to millions of dollars in losses each year. Add that to the already high prices of food to get the real cost of putting a meal on the table.

Despite the risks, some agronomists believe that hillside agriculture is a viable option for small-scale food crop farmers in countries where all of the best land is owned or controlled by large scale producers growing export crops. In his ‘Handbook of Tropical Vegetable Production,” agricultural expert and consultant Joseph Duncan dedicates an entire chapter to scientific hillside farming techniques.

Joseph argues that a “substantial proportion of lands in the tropics consists of rough, steep terrain.” He also describes local hillside agriculture as a “a major vegetable production system in Trinidad (that) should not be ignored.”

This type of farming has many drawbacks: It depends almost entirely on rainfall for water, limiting production to the Wet Season, as most streams in the highlands of the Northern Range tend to dry out in the Dry Season.

Land clearing must be done with hand tools, or with a hand-held power saw. The use of a bulldozer for this purpose is impossible in most cases. The cut vegetation is then burnt, as it cannot be pushed off the field by bulldozers. This burning, according to Joseph, predisposes the land to erosion, burns organic matter, reduces the soil’s nutrient content, and reduces the soil’s binding properties.

Efficient soil conservation methods are vital in hillside cultivation. Farmers must take measures to check the rate of the flow of water down the hillside to prevent erosion, and prevent flooding in nearby low-lying areas. This is achieved through terracing and digging contour drains.

There is evidence that some hillside farmers do not practice effective soil conservation, leading to disastrous annual floods.

Joseph named Paramin and Maracas Valley as examples where vegetables are grown at slopes ranging from about 30 to 40 degrees at altitudes of over 400 metres (over 1,000 feet). These two areas alone produce an estimated 40 to 50 percent of condiments sold in the market in Port-of-Spain.

While hillside agriculture seems to be a viable option for food farmers, some believe that they are forced to literally scrape a living from the hillsides while thousands of acres of prime agricultural lands that were once managed by the now defunct Caroni 1975 Limited are lying idle.

In their opinion, the time is ripe for a clear policy on agriculture, hillside conservation, and land use, including mechanisms for making prime Caroni agricultural lands available to farmers for food production.

Bad fertiliser, seeds in farm shops

Sheldon Osborne — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:11:11 +0000

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.