Government's Corn Production Initiative Could Slash T&T’s Food Import Bill

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]Reducing this country's food imports bill and job creation continue to be at the forefront for the government and Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Rafi Ratiram revealed that his ministry is working toward achieving this through several initiatives. One such plan is planting corn for livestock feed.

[00:00:18]>> This is again a special project that we are doing. This corn is for livestock. It's for animal feed. We import close to 256 million dollars in corn on an annual basis. So again, this is to contribute towards import substitution.

[00:00:36]>> The seeds were planted in March 2026 together with black-eyed peas and soybeans.

[00:00:41]>> Lowering our food import bill and also creating opportunities to earn foreign exchange from agriculture because we are looking at also, you know, from processing being able to export. But more than that, it will also create job opportunities.

[00:00:56]>> Though the pilot project focuses on utilizing the corn for livestock feed, manager of Science, Technology and Innovation at the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute Fyaz Shah explained that it can also be used for human consumption.

[00:01:11]>> So it will go from the fresh state that we are accustomed to buying fresh corn in Trinidad and then it would we would leave it on the trees, allow it to dry and roughly in six weeks time to to eight weeks we'll be ready to harvest the grains. That would then be dried and used for animal feed or even for corn flour.

[00:01:28]>> Minister in the office of the Prime Minister Daryl Alahad commended the initiative noting that it will inspire young people with an interest in agriculture.

[00:01:36]>> We have a lot of youth who are interested in agriculture, hydroponics and all these new things are coming on stream now.

[00:01:42]>> Similar sentiments were echoed by member of parliament for Caroni East Dr. Rishad Seecharan who said it will benefit farmers of his constituency.

[00:01:51]>> They are looking for new cash crops and this of course will lead in employment in Caroni as well.

[00:01:57]>> The pilot for soybean, corn, and black-eyed beans production is located at the Southern Main Road, Caroni, and forms part of a shift towards a production-based agricultural approach.

[00:02:09]Nicole Duke, TTT News.