BY ADRIAN BOODAN

The Agricultural Society of T&T (ASTT) hopes to attract new blood into agriculture through its outreach programmes, according to president Dhanoo Sookoo.

She was speaking with journalists last Friday following a function at which the ASTT donated a quantity of vegetable seedlings and fruit trees to the Palmiste Government School in central Trinidad.

Sookoo said T&T is faced with an “ageing agricultural population.”

She said young people between the ages of 15-40 are being attracted to other jobs outside of the agricultural sector, even Cepep and URP jobs, because of the misconception that agriculture is not a profitable venture.

Sookoo said the ASTT planned to change this notion by visiting schools across T&T to encourage young people to become actively involved in agriculture.

She said this would improve T&T’s food security. She pledged that the ASTT would provide ongoing technical support to the school.