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SAN FERNANDO East MP Brian Manning is continuing the Cuban green revolution system of agriculture in his constituency, initiated by his late father, former prime minister Patrick Manning, many years ago.
While the arrangement at present is to provide food crops for wholesale, for retail and to give to the vulnerable, Brian Manning’s vision is to take the initiative several steps further to manufacturing and processing.
On Saturday morning, he joined councillor Robert Parris, community activists and volunteers to fence the area around the Glen Jemmot Community Garden at Flamingo Crescent, Pleasantville.
Parris has been ensuring the vision Patrick Manning had for the constituency to become self-sufficient by growing its own food is realised. He recalled standing at Flamingo Crescent in 2014 with Patrick Manning who spoke about Pleasantville being ideal to establish the Cuban model of community farming.
The garden will produce patchoi, kale, tomatoes, lettuce, sweet peppers, sweet potatoes and corn that will be sold to outlets in the community at a low cost.
Brian Manning said while he was familiar with the project when his father started it, he was not aware of its continuity before he was elected as MP one year ago.
“It feels really good, on a personal level, to see this kind of work being done in this community. I mean this is the community that essentially raised me and it feels good to give back and work with constituents to improve lives.”
Manning said his vision is to use this project to reduce the high food import bill.
“The food importation bill is out of control, even with increased taxes on imported goods, it is still a large consumer of foreign exchange about $1 billion a year.
“We are trying to find ways to reduce the demand for foreign exchange so we can keep the rate stable.
“One of the ways of doing that is producing and consuming more local foods. One of the positive things that has emerged from the pandemic is that more people have turned to growing and consuming local produce and we hope to continue that even after the pandemic is no longer with us.”
He said Government’s emphasis on national and community agricultural programme fits in with the integration of the Pleasantville initiative.
“We have a complete agricultural programme, we have a director of agriculture for San Fernando East which involves educational projects, natural projects for like this one and also includes distribution of land for agriculture for young entrepreneurs."
He said there are established green spaces in the constituency and the plan is to roll out similar projects in the other electoral districts, pointing to a recent hydroponic project initiated in Mon Repos and another soon to be launched in the district of Cocoyea to keep young people engaged.
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