Investment in modern technologies to boost local agriculture

Riyadh Mo­hammed

Trinidad and To­ba­go’s gov­ern­ment and pri­vate sec­tor are ac­tive­ly chan­nel­ing in­vest­ments in­to mod­ern tech­nolo­gies like AI, drones, pre­ci­sion ir­ri­ga­tion and dig­i­tal plat­forms to en­hance agri­cul­tur­al pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, re­silience, and food se­cu­ri­ty. These ef­forts ad­dress chal­lenges such as high costs, lim­it­ed dig­i­tal ac­cess and cli­mate risks faced by small­hold­er farm­ers, align­ing with na­tion­al plans for tech-dri­ven growth. The 2026 PSIP al­lo­cates funds for agri-tech un­der agri­cul­tur­al pro­duc­tion and in­fra­struc­ture, where a small por­tion is used for ir­ri­ga­tion, land de­vel­op­ment, and tech ini­tia­tives with­in a $1.13 bil­lion al­lo­ca­tion.

The agri­cul­tur­al plan for T&T

The $1.13 bil­lion agri­cul­ture al­lo­ca­tion plan out­lined in the 2025/2026 bud­get, tar­gets food se­cu­ri­ty by 2030 through mod­erni­sa­tion, re­duced im­port re­liance, and ex­port growth. It aims to cut the na­tion­al food im­port bill by 25 per cent by 2030 via tech in­te­gra­tion, in­fra­struc­ture up­grades, and stake­hold­er part­ner­ships. Heavy in­vest­ment in smart agri­cul­ture, AI and agri-tech boosts ef­fi­cien­cy and self-suf­fi­cien­cy for lo­cal pro­duc­ers. Youth pro­grammes like the Youth Agri­cul­tur­al Fund and school in­te­gra­tion pro­mote long-term par­tic­i­pa­tion. A ‘Buy Lo­cal, Build Trin­ba­go’ cam­paign sup­ports pro­duc­ers while align­ing with Cari­com’s “25 by 2025” im­port re­duc­tion goals, ex­tend­ed to 2030 tar­gets.

Agri­cul­tur­al tech­nolo­gies

Farm­ers can lever­age var­i­ous agri­cul­tur­al tech­nolo­gies to en­hance food safe­ty and qual­i­ty by min­i­miz­ing con­t­a­m­i­nants, op­ti­mis­ing in­puts, and im­prov­ing trace­abil­i­ty. These tools re­duce chem­i­cal overuse, boost dis­ease re­sis­tance and en­sure pre­cise mon­i­tor­ing through­out pro­duc­tion.

For Crops

1) Pre­ci­sion agri­cul­ture- GPS, drones, IoT sen­sors, and aer­i­al im­agery en­able tar­get­ed ap­pli­ca­tion of wa­ter, fer­tilis­ers, and pes­ti­cides, cut­ting waste by 40 to 60 per cent and chem­i­cal residues in crops. This pre­ci­sion low­ers con­t­a­m­i­na­tion risks while main­tain­ing op­ti­mal growth con­di­tions.

2) Biotech­nol­o­gy and gene edit­ing- CRISPR-Cas9 and ge­net­ic en­gi­neer­ing cre­ate drought-re­sis­tant, dis­ease-tol­er­ant crops like non-brown­ing mush­rooms or virus-re­sis­tant pa­paya, re­duc­ing pes­ti­cide needs and im­prov­ing nu­tri­tion­al pro­files. These mod­i­fi­ca­tions en­hance yield and safe­ty with­out for­eign DNA in many cas­es.

3) Smart mon­i­tor­ing sys­tems- In-field sen­sors track soil, weath­er, and crop health to pre­vent spoilage and en­sure prop­er har­vest tim­ing, while AI-dri­ven sprayers tar­get weeds pre­cise­ly. Farm man­age­ment plat­forms pro­vide end-to-end trace­abil­i­ty from farm to fork, mit­i­gat­ing post-har­vest con­t­a­m­i­na­tion.

4) Soil-less and con­trolled farm­ing- Ver­ti­cal, hy­dro­pon­ic, and aero­pon­ic sys­tems grow crops with­out soil, min­i­miz­ing pathogen ex­po­sure and en­abling year-round pro­duc­tion in con­trolled en­vi­ron­ments. These meth­ods sup­port pes­ti­cide-free cul­ti­va­tion for health­i­er out­puts.

For Live­stock

1) Pre­ci­sion mon­i­tor­ing sen­sors- Wear­able sen­sors on an­i­mals track vi­tal signs like tem­per­a­ture, ac­tiv­i­ty, and ru­mi­na­tion to de­tect ear­ly ill­ness or stress, en­abling time­ly in­ter­ven­tions. GPS col­lars pro­vide re­al-time lo­ca­tion da­ta for vir­tu­al fenc­ing, op­ti­miz­ing graz­ing pat­terns and pre­vent­ing over­graz­ing or stray­ing.

2) Au­to­mat­ed feed­ing sys­tems- Pre­ci­sion feed­ing tech us­es sen­sors and AI to de­liv­er cus­tomized ra­tions based on in­di­vid­ual an­i­mal needs, cut­ting feed waste by up to 20% and im­prov­ing growth rates. Walk-over weigh­ing plat­forms mon­i­tor weight gains au­to­mat­i­cal­ly for bet­ter herd man­age­ment.

3) Health and re­pro­duc­tion tech- AI-dri­ven cam­eras and drones scan herds for lame­ness, in­juries, or breed­ing readi­ness, sup­port­ing dis­ease pre­ven­tion and re­pro­duc­tive ef­fi­cien­cy. IoT sys­tems in­te­grate da­ta for pre­dic­tive an­a­lyt­ics on out­breaks or heat stress.

4) En­vi­ron­men­tal con­trols- Au­to­mat­ed ven­ti­la­tion, wa­ter mon­i­tor­ing, and ro­bot­ics in barns main­tain op­ti­mal con­di­tions, boost­ing wel­fare and meat/milk qual­i­ty. These tools col­lec­tive­ly low­er an­tibi­ot­ic use and emis­sions.

Im­por­tance and ben­e­fits

Agri­cul­tur­al tech­nolo­gies play a vi­tal role in boost­ing pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and re­silience for T&Ts farm­ing sec­tor, which faces cli­mate chal­lenges like floods, droughts, and heat. They help ad­dress food se­cu­ri­ty needs in this Caribbean na­tion by en­abling high­er yields and sus­tain­able prac­tices tai­lored to lo­cal con­di­tions. Tech­nolo­gies such as drones, mo­bile apps, GIS map­ping, and wa­ter man­age­ment sys­tems like drip ir­ri­ga­tion with soil sen­sors help farm­ers cope with ex­treme weath­er. These tools re­duce crop stress from heavy rain or drought, im­prov­ing nurs­ery man­age­ment and pest con­trol for bet­ter re­silience.

Pro­tect­ed agri­cul­ture (e.g., green­hous­es) and smart farm­ing with sen­sors for soil mois­ture, nu­tri­ents, and tem­per­a­ture boost out­put per acre com­pared to open fields. Pre­ci­sion tools like fer­ti­ga­tion and au­toma­tion cut la­bor, weeds, and costs while en­abling year-round high-qual­i­ty pro­duce. Ver­ti­cal farm­ing equiv­a­lents can match 10-20 acres of tra­di­tion­al land on just one acre. These in­no­va­tions low­er pro­duc­tion ex­pens­es, in­crease farmer in­comes, and min­i­mize post-har­vest loss­es through bet­ter mar­ket con­nec­tiv­i­ty. Dig­i­ti­za­tion projects, like those from CAF-FAO, en­hance wa­ter re­source man­age­ment dur­ing dry sea­sons and sup­port eco­nom­ic di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion. Over­all, they pro­mote na­tion­al food se­cu­ri­ty, nu­tri­tion, and sus­tain­able liveli­hoods amid cli­mate risks.

Hin­drances to ac­cess

Sev­er­al key bar­ri­ers lim­it farm­ers in Trinidad and To­ba­go from ac­cess­ing and adopt­ing agri­cul­tur­al tech­nolo­gies like drip ir­ri­ga­tion, pro­tect­ed struc­tures, and dig­i­tal tools. High up­front costs for equip­ment, such as so­lar-pow­ered sys­tems or green­hous­es, de­ter small­hold­er farm­ers who lack af­ford­able loans or sub­si­dies. Lim­it­ed fi­nanc­ing schemes and heavy re­liance on fu­el sub­si­dies slow in­vest­ment in ef­fi­cient al­ter­na­tives, while eco­nom­ic pres­sures like fluc­tu­at­ing mar­kets ex­ac­er­bate the is­sue.

In­ad­e­quate ac­cess to re­li­able wa­ter, skilled tech­ni­cians for in­stal­la­tion and main­te­nance, and poor rur­al in­fra­struc­ture (e.g., roads, cold stor­age) hin­der tech­nol­o­gy roll­out. Many ar­eas suf­fer from un­re­li­able elec­tric­i­ty and ICT dis­par­i­ties be­tween ur­ban and rur­al zones, re­strict­ing tools like sen­sors or apps. Weak ex­ten­sion ser­vices fail to pro­vide demon­stra­tions, train­ing, or proven ex­am­ples, leav­ing farm­ers un­aware of ben­e­fits or fear­ful of com­plex­i­ty. Lim­it­ed tech­ni­cal knowl­edge, low dig­i­tal skills, and poor pol­i­cy co­or­di­na­tion be­tween re­search, en­force­ment, and end-users com­pound re­sis­tance to change.

Rec­om­men­da­tions

T&T can en­hance food se­cu­ri­ty and agribusi­ness ef­fi­cien­cy by in­te­grat­ing agri­cul­tur­al tech­nolo­gies tai­lored to its trop­i­cal cli­mate and small­hold­er farm­ing sys­tems. Gov­ern­ment-led strate­gies should pri­or­i­tize farmer ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty, train­ing, and in­cen­tives to dri­ve adop­tion in both farm­ing and man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tors. Ex­pand the Agro-In­cen­tive Pro­gramme to sub­si­dize mod­ern tools like drip ir­ri­ga­tion, soil sen­sors, and pro­tect­ed agri­cul­ture struc­tures, which boost yields and cli­mate re­silience. Of­fer VAT ex­emp­tions on all ag-tech im­ports, in­clud­ing drones and pre­ci­sion equip­ment, while ty­ing re­bates to ver­i­fied pro­duc­tiv­i­ty gains.

Launch­ing na­tion­wide work­shops through the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture, fo­cus­ing on dig­i­tal tools such as mo­bile apps for crop mon­i­tor­ing, GIS map­ping, and hy­dro­pon­ics/aquapon­ics sys­tems will aid in this ef­fort. Col­lab­o­rate with UWI, UTT, IICA, FAO and CAR­DI to cer­ti­fy farm­ers in cli­mate-smart prac­tices, em­pha­siz­ing wa­ter-ef­fi­cient fer­ti­ga­tion and pest man­age­ment tech. Tar­get youth and women via vir­tu­al cours­es to build a skilled work­force. In­vest in off-grid so­lar-pow­ered fa­cil­i­ties for rur­al pro­cess­ing plants, en­abling cold chain lo­gis­tics and val­ue-added man­u­fac­tur­ing. De­vel­op shared tech hubs with high-speed in­ter­net for re­al-time da­ta an­a­lyt­ics in sup­ply chains. Up­grade ex­ten­sion ser­vices with dig­i­tal plat­forms for on­go­ing farmer ad­vi­so­ry, sim­i­lar to FAO-backed pi­lots.

Fund R&D for lo­cal­ly adapt­ed tech, such as drought-tol­er­ant trans­plants and au­to­mat­ed green­hous­es, through pub­lic-pri­vate ties with Caribbean in­no­va­tors. in­cen­tivize man­u­fac­tur­ing tech like au­to­mat­ed pack­ag­ing and qual­i­ty sen­sors to meet ex­port stan­dards. Mon­i­tor progress via KPIs like yield in­creas­es and tech adop­tion rates, ad­just­ing based on an­nu­al au­dits.

Riyadh Mo­hammed (LLM, MBA, MSC, BSC, DIP)

Lead Agri­cul­ture Con­sul­tant

Trop­i­cal Agri­cul­ture Con­sul­tan­cy Ser­vices

1 868 307 5444

riyadhmo­ha******@***il.com