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Morning muse
Possessed with concerns on food production and agriculture in Trinidad and Tobago in general, I I awoke just after 4:00 am today thinking of my next step. At this time of day, it is quiet, calm and free of the usual daily distractions. With a clarity of thought and insight, I decided to first do an update of my coffee blog to include an interesting component that I had missed earlier. Those of you with an interest in coffee may visit: www.cafevegatt.blogspot.com
My thoughts soon returned to: 'what should I do to try and influence at least one aspect of agricultural production or related research and development?' What crop or commodity should my energy be focused on? Needed root crops and vegetables seem to be widely produced locally, but the lack of coordinated production has often led to gluts of particular crop types, where the farmers allow the mature crop to rot in the field because the price in the market is less than the cost of harvest and post harvest handling. As we say locally..."every body and their dog producing it now".
Diversification
Over the past three decades there has been frequent 'talk' on diversification and post harvest processing with some serious attempts at putting such things in place...but little sustained effort on a sufficient scale seems to have survived today. I remember about 7 years ago, in a discussion with a newly appointed Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Agriculture at a field station in east Trinidad, I was outlining a proposal for making cassava flour and organising existing cassava farmers to be shareholders of the enterprise. Well, in a strong tone of voice that PS said: "I don't want to hear anything about cassava flour, I am tired of it...it is a good thing you are not in my office, else I would have had you put out!" Ahh, such enlightened leadership, regrettably, is not an uncommon thing today among all walks of life. By the way, wheat flour currently sells for about TT$7/kg while cassava flour (all imported) sells for about TT$85/kg. There is more to that story in terms of follow-up action to be part of a team that visited a South American country to see and get details on setting up a cassava flour facility in Trinidad. But the outcome is more embarrassing for the Ministry of Agriculture and I will spare them at this time.
New opportunity
What kind of crop grows easily here...like a weed even (not that kind of "weed", in case you are thinking of ganja!); that is not yet exploited to its full potential, but if it is properly processed and marketed, will add significant value to peoples lives? Why has Trinidad and Tobago not entered the 'Farmer-ceutical' markets...farmer produced botanicals for medicines and health supplements? Hmmm...is there such an opportunity here. One example of a local plant that grows like a weed in many places, comes easily to my mind...Ruellia tuberosa. Go check it up for yourself.
Several clinical studies have shown its efficacy in reducing blood sugar levels and helping in kidney repair...we don't need to reinvent the research, just keep track of the clinical trials. It is only a matter of time before the big pharmaceutical companies of the north seize the opportunity, patent a formulation and start selling it as a natural diabetic control for big money. By the way, natural products from plants cannot be patented...a formulation with a specific combination of biochemicals however, can be patented. Maybe I should start doing something about this.
The sun is beginning to creep into the sky and the birds have already completed their early morning serenade. So, it is time for me to head out into the bush to start my task for the day. Catch you all next time!
