From left: Ian Walcott, Managing Director, Nutrien Trinidad and Mark Loquan, President, NGC.
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad--“The National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (NGC) and Nutrien are pleased to announce their intention to collaborate for the purpose of exploring opportunities with the goal of improving our nation’s food and nutrition security,” according to a press release from the NGC. It adds, “This partnership is underpinned by the recognition that enhancing local food production and consumption can play an integral role in Trinidad and Tobago’s food security, while simultaneously improving nutrition, diets and overall health and wellness.”
The release states that both companies will work closely with stakeholders along the local food value chain to identify opportunities to improve food and nutrition security in the following five main areas:
* Praedial larceny: to improve detection and intervention through the deployment of shared remote sensing technologies such as closed-circuit cameras, sensors and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs);
* Precision agriculture: to introduce, test and deploy precision agriculture methods through UAVs and satellite technology. This model will aim to improve plant health-monitoring efficiency and sustainability in the use of agricultural inputs;
* Food waste: to identify opportunities to reduce food waste. This will support the country’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions in the fight against climate change and help the most vulnerable to meet their daily nutritional needs;
* Community climate-smart agriculture: promote food production at the community level using climate-smart agriculture (CSA). CSA is an integrated approach to managing crops, livestock, forests and fisheries that addresses the interlinked challenges of food security and accelerating climate change; and
* Food, health, and nutritional awareness: build public awareness regarding the health benefits of boosting the production and consumption of fresh, locally produced foods, especially those with a high plant-based content.
The immediate next steps for this Food and Nutrition Security Alliance will be the engagement with key partners along the food value chain to develop plans for these five focal areas. Over the next two years, priority areas will be identified and appropriate action plans developed.
“NGC and Nutrien also recognise that global food security is being seriously impacted by climate change. Therefore, the alliance seeks to utilise the expertise of all stakeholders involved, to mitigate the impacts of climate change on food security, while positively impacting sustainability in Trinidad and Tobago,” the release states.
“Our common aspiration is to effectively enhance the agricultural sector in alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and bring tangible and sustainable benefit to our people, working together to grow our world from the ground up,” it concludes.
