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AGRICULTURE Minister Ravi Ratiram yearned for TT to return to its glory days of cocoa production, describing it now as a potential goldmine for farmers that can help to diversify the country’s economy. He gave the feature address at the Cocoa Research Centre (CRC) Annual Research and Development Symposium held at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, on May 21. The conference theme was building sustainability and resilience in the cocoa value chain.
Ratiram hailed the CRC’s commitment to research, innovation and sustainability. He said the conference theme resonated deeply with the idea of diversifying the TT economy and strengthening the agricultural value chain.
The minister said was more than just a crop but was also a cultural and economic legacy. He touted TT’s Trinitaro strain, that he said was a hybrid of the Creolo and Forestero strains.
“In the 1920s cocoa was a leading export, employing tens of thousands of people.”
Ratiram said TT at its peak had produced 30,000 tones of cocoa per year. Today it was just 500 tons annually, he lamented.
“The cocoa industry needs revitalisation,” Ratiram said.
He said, historically, the cocoa industry had declined after infection by diseases known as Witch’s Broom and Black Pod Disease. Ratiram said the local cocoa industry had been hit by declines in farmers’ confidence, estates’ productivity and export earnings.
“For too long, the cocoa industry has teetered on the edge of irrelevance.
“But today with collaboration, we stand on the threshold of opportunity.”
He lauded support to the sector offered by the Cocoa Investment Fund.
“We have to encourage our young ones to get involved in this potential goldmine that exists in TT.”
He said the industry’s recovery could be based on a scientific backbone.
“Bridge the gap between research and application, so findings reach the farmers’ fields.”
He urged all present to commit to cocoa restoring TT’s economy.
“Let us cultivate not just cocoa but a legacy of pride for all stakeholders in the industry.”
The conference also received welcome remarks from campus principal Prof Rose-Marie Belle Antoine and CRC director Prof Pathmanathan Umaharan. Dr Peri Tobias, a research fellow from the University of Sydney (Australia) gave the guest lecture, on the topic of resistance to vascular streak dieback (VSD), an infection hitting cocoa plants in places like Papua New Guinea.
Trinidad and Tobago Newsday