The call by the All Trinidad General Workers Trade Union (ATGWTU) for the intervention of the Minister of Agriculture in investigating issues at the Mora Valley Farm is one that echoes throughout the history of farming in Trinidad and Tobago since Independence.
According to the union, the Agriculture Ministry has been failing, since 2012, to address significant issues affecting both the Mora Valley Farm and the Sugarcane Feed Centre.
Both state businesses have been plagued, according to the ATGWTU’s president general Nirvan Maharaj, by “late subventions, late payment of wages and salaries, danger to employees, health and safety issues, outstanding back pay and lack of negotiations.”
At risk is the first animal designed for the climate of Trinidad and Tobago, the buffalypso, a breed of water buffalo descended from an Indian branch of the species that would thrive in an equatorial climate. There are just 1,000 of these animals left and they face a lack of food and limited human resources to care for them.
The T&T water buffalo, formally Bubalis Bubalis, was engineered by the legendary veterinarian Dr Stephen Bennett and represents, despite the lack of attention that the diminishing herd has been subject to in recent decades, a major indigenous effort at meeting the country’s need for food with animal genes suited to our climate and geography.
Dr Bennett developed the new breed in the early 1960’s from Indian water buffalo that was introduced to Trinidad as a beast of burden to be used on the sugar estates.
The Zebu breed then in common use, was prone to tuberculosis in the tropical climate and the enterprising veterinarian bred an animal with very thick skin to resist parasites, so thick that it was split in two to create two workable hides. Bubalis Bubalis could survive on inferior grass feed, provided quality beef and milk.
The buffalypso was introduced to Colombia in 1965 with a shipment of 200 head of the breed, followed by shipments to Brazil, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba, USA and Italy.
Dr Stephen Bennet’s pioneering work in animal husbandry and genetic selection through breeding was a landmark in research and development in agriculture in Trinidad and Tobago and one that has rarely been matched since in its scope, scale and impact.
Before Dr Bennett passed in 2011, he had been honoured for his work in the veterinary sciences with the Chaconia Medal, Gold (1984) and an Honorary Degree from the University of the West Indies (2001).
It’s one thing to forget almost totally about the late doctor; it would another to casually set aside the legacy and history of innovation that his work represented in sparking enthusiasm and adventure in the field of local agriculture.
What agriculture needs is more innovation, more research, more location specific development of innovative solutions to the challenges that local agriculture faces and Dr Bennett’s work with the buffalypso stands as a rallying point for such hopes and dreams for the sector.
If Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat allows this remarkable species to be endangered through a lamentable lack of focus on its importance as a focus point for our successful agricultural history, it would be a terrible shame and a damning loss to the country as a whole.