tidings
Elizabeth Gonzales
YOUTH Development and National Services Minister Foster Cummings has launched the Youth Agricultural Shade House Project to attract more young people into the profession and create sustainable jobs in the sector.
Launching the project on Monday at the ministry in Elizabeth Street, St Clair, Cummings said the program is designed to equip young people with the skills and resources to develop agriculture and produce high-value crops.
His vision is to contribute to the sector to promote a local culture of grow-what-you-eat and eat and create significant agri-entrepreneurship opportunities.
The project will provide agricultural training, infrastructure development and extension and operational services to 100 participants aged 16 to 35. The Ministry will provide participants with a stipend during the project.
The one-year certification program will be held in collaboration with UWI, St Augustine and the Guyana National Agricultural Research Extension Institute at the Chaguaramas Development Authority Agricultural Park, Tucker Valley, Chaguaramas.
Cummings said, “The aim is for us to give young people across Trinidad and Tobago the opportunity to participate in this project which will be dedicated to training them in the production of high value agricultural products.
“The model will involve the formation of a cooperative of participants after the successful completion of their training. They will form a business model that they will use to market these cultures to users, (who) will of course be people in the hospitality industry, in the fast food industry, and of course to ordinary consumers throughout place.”
