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Former Caroni (1975) Ltd sugar workers will be given a chance to combine the two-acre lots they received as part of their VSEP packages to create larger farms.

Food Production Minister Vasant Bharath believes this opportunity will help former sugar workers who are unable or unwilling to begin food production utilise their land.

He said: “Because of the length of time that it has taken for the allocation of these plots, what has happened is that a number of people who have gotten these two-acre plots died, some of them are no longer interested in farming, their children were no longer interested in farming so you have these two-acre plots lying idle.

“A number of these plots are significant distances away from where these ex-workers live and therefore the whole issue of praedial larceny, the whole issue of getting to these plots has posed to be challenging so we have been trying to work on a system now where we can collate a number of these plots into possible 500- or 1,000-acre plots and we can form some kind of co-operative because otherwise what you will find is that a lot of it will lie dormant over the next few years.”

Bharath was speaking at a press conference to announce a grant of 24.15 million euros or TT$210 million in development assistance from the European Union to the government when he made the comments.

The press briefing was held at the Ministry of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education in Port of Spain.

Of the total grant, the Ministry of Agriculture will receive 13.034 million euros for use towards the diversification of the agricultural sector away from the sugar industry.

Another 11.16 million euros will go towards the development of the non-university tertiary education sector.

The money will go directly to the Treasury and will be dispersed to the two ministries.