Welfare Employment and Its Impact on the Agricultural Sector Workforce in Trinidad, West Indies

Abstract

The agricultural sector in Trinidad and Tobago is characterized by a labor shortage. A qualitative research design was used to investigate the impact of a national welfare employment program, on the agriculture labor sector. The study recruited n = 19 Community-Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Program (CEPEP) employees, n = 10 farmers and n = 7 agricultural professionals for in-depth interviews and focus group sessions. A review was conducted of newspaper articles and national budget statements for content related to CEPEP and agriculture. A thematic analysis was conducted to establish themes from the data gathered from the participants and from the media review. The themes emerged were “CEPEP’s benefits to agriculture”, “Labor shortages in Agriculture”, “Convenience Employment” and “Challenges to CEPEP in Agriculture”. The study concludes that welfare employment can be incorporated into the development agenda for agriculture in Trinidad and Tobago once the issues of capacity building, retooling and mentorship, wage adjustments are factored into a structured program.

Review: Evaluating existing policies to address overweight and obesity in the Anglophone Caribbean: A narrative review of Barbados, Grenada, St. Lucia, and Trinidad & Tobago

“…Trinidad and Tobago's food import bill doubled from 2004 to 2008, and this trend of increasing food imports becomes more substantial with each passing year [ 35 ]. Researchers reported that Trinidad and Tobago's total food import bill between 2003 and 2016 was approximately USD$8.91 billion or TT$56.9 billion [ 36 ]. In 2013, the economic cost diverted toward food imports was about USD 364 million (about TT$2.5 billion) [ 37 ].…”

“…Food insecurity is one of the known causes of undernutrition and stunting in children, but it has also been linked to obesity [ 39 ]. Food security involves “physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets [the] dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” [ 36 ]. Food security entails having access to sufficient nutritious food.…”