THE Governments of Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) are mulling partnerships in agriculture which could include the areas of rice, water- resource management, cultivation and agricultural technology.

Even as T&T Prime Minister Keith Rowley met with President David Granger at State House on Wednesday for the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for cooperation in energy, several other issues were discussed.

“There are other areas of interest and we extended our conversations to deal with agriculture, to deal with sport and youth, to deal with security, to deal with cooperation in other fields and we expect that as a result of this engagement today, relations between our two republics will become stronger,” President Granger said in his opening remarks.

Meanwhile, Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries, Clarence Rambarat, disclosed to the media many of the collaborative possibilities discussed. Rambarat said that with the island being prone to flashfloods, several areas can benefit from the knowledge of its Caribbean neighbour regarding engineering strategies to reduce or prevent such.

Just days ago, T&T’s Guardian newspaper reported floods which rose in several parts of the island following hours of heavy rains, while widespread riverine flooding is a common yearly occurrence. “We discussed other things like Guyana’s expertise in water-resource management and the infrastructure you’ve developed over a long time. In Trinidad we have issues with flooding. Every time we have excessive rainfall our farmers are badly affected, our country is badly affected. We think that that’s an area that your engineering expertise can be put to use,” the minister said.

Meanwhile, talks are also being had for land to be used in Guyana to cultivate animal feed, although Rambarat stated that there are some challenges in this regard.

“We’ve discussed the issue of possibly using land to encourage Trinidad investors to use land, for the cultivation of products that would go into animal feed like soy [and] corn. That is something that has been discussed a long time but, of course, we’re challenged by the fact that the people who consume the most amount of feed in Trinidad and in Guyana have long- term supply contracts out of the United States, prices [have been] fixed, its reliable, they’ve been doing it for a long time and we would have to see how competitive we would be in doing that,” he said.

Guyana’s rice could once again take preference in the twin-island state, should certain criteria be met, Rambarat noted. “The complaint from our farmers [is that] we have a very small industry and one of the complaints [that] have been consistent is quality seed and different varieties, so that has been an area that we need to work on [with regard to rice] going to Trinidad.”

Other matters discussed include modern food-safety legislation; the possibility of live animals being put on the market in Trinidad and collaboration in agricultural technology.
Addressing the latter, the Agriculture, Land and Fisheries Minister said: “Both Guyana and Trinidad believe that we can fuse a lot of technology in agriculture, particularly as it related to climate-smart agriculture and protected farming and those areas.”

Trinidad Prime Minister Keith Rowley said that following the signing of the MoU and other discussions had, it is his hope that the two countries can move full speed ahead on implementing areas of collaboration.

“I’ve brought from Trinidad the Minister of Energy; the Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs; the Minister of Planning and Development; the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries and these counterparts and your counterparts in here and in Trinidad, we have had some very recent discussions and we look forward to moving away from talking about what should be done or what we should be doing and actually moving to the doing phase,” he said, adding: “It is my expectation that in the coming months and years ahead, without further ‘talking’ together on issues, that our people can see more action in the areas of cooperation and development.”