Dr Var­ma Deyals­ingh

Yes­ter­day, many of our cit­i­zens ob­served the long­stand­ing tra­di­tion of plant­i­ng on Cor­pus Christi. There is a wide­ly held be­lief that any­thing plant­ed on this holy day will flour­ish.

Whether one sees this as an ex­pres­sion of faith, folk­lore, or sim­ply the re­sult of good agri­cul­tur­al tim­ing, it re­mains one of our most trea­sured na­tion­al tra­di­tions.

To­day, how­ev­er, I be­lieve Cor­pus Christi can be­come some­thing even greater—a na­tion­al move­ment that can unite peo­ple of all faiths to help feed our peo­ple, beau­ti­fy our coun­try, com­bat cli­mate change, and re­con­nect us with the land.

The tra­di­tion al­ready tran­scends re­li­gion. Many non-Chris­tians par­tic­i­pate in plant­i­ng ac­tiv­i­ties. Both Hin­du and African tra­di­tions have long as­so­ci­at­ed the Earth, plant­i­ng, har­vests and fer­til­i­ty with di­vine bless­ings.

In In­dia, the Bhoo­mi Pu­ja is per­formed be­fore cul­ti­va­tion, seek­ing Moth­er Earth’s (Bhoo­mi De­vi’s) bless­ings for a boun­ti­ful har­vest.

The Yoru­ba peo­ple of Nige­ria have tra­di­tion­al­ly sought bless­ings from the de­ity Or­isha Oko, who is as­so­ci­at­ed with fer­tile fields and suc­cess­ful har­vests. Many African tra­di­tions re­gard cer­tain trees as spir­i­tu­al­ly pow­er­ful. Trees may be plant­ed to mark births, ho­n­our an­ces­tors, de­fine com­mu­ni­ty spaces, or in­voke pro­tec­tion and pros­per­i­ty.

Our prac­tice of plant­i­ng on Cor­pus Christi may have been strength­ened by this blend­ing of tra­di­tions that al­ready linked sa­cred days, bless­ings and suc­cess­ful crops. Across cul­tures, peo­ple have un­der­stood that car­ing for the land is both a prac­ti­cal and spir­i­tu­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.

At a time when food prices con­tin­ue to rise and cli­mate change threat­ens our fu­ture, Trinidad and To­ba­go should em­brace Cor­pus Christi as a na­tion­al plant­i­ng day.

Food se­cu­ri­ty is a grow­ing con­cern. We im­port a sig­nif­i­cant por­tion of our food. Every man­go tree, bread­fruit tree, av­o­ca­do tree, cit­rus tree, or kitchen gar­den plant­ed by a house­hold helps re­duce de­pen­dence on im­port­ed food while im­prov­ing fam­i­ly nu­tri­tion. A bread­fruit tree plant­ed to­day can pro­duce hun­dreds of pounds of food an­nu­al­ly for decades. A man­go tree can pro­vide fruit for gen­er­a­tions.

Imag­ine if every house­hold plant­ed just one fruit tree each Cor­pus Christi. Over ten years, mil­lions of trees could be added to our land­scape, cre­at­ing a liv­ing food re­serve for fu­ture gen­er­a­tions.

This is why I was pleased with the free seed dis­tri­b­u­tion by var­i­ous Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment and the Prime Min­is­ter.

How­ev­er, we can go fur­ther. We can in­volve lo­cal gov­ern­ment bod­ies, schools, re­li­gious or­gan­i­sa­tions and com­mu­ni­ty groups in dis­trib­ut­ing seedlings and seeds.

Our agri­cul­tur­al sta­tions could be­come cen­tres of pub­lic out­reach, teach­ing cit­i­zens how to es­tab­lish kitchen gar­dens, main­tain fruit trees, com­post or­gan­ic waste, har­vest rain­wa­ter and use grow-box agri­cul­ture.

Idle state lands and un­used com­mu­ni­ty spaces could be trans­formed in­to food gar­dens, com­mu­ni­ty farms and mi­ni-or­chards. Schools should be en­cour­aged to re­vi­talise gar­dens where chil­dren can learn agri­cul­ture, en­vi­ron­men­tal re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, nu­tri­tion and en­tre­pre­neur­ship.

We must ac­knowl­edge the Min­is­ter of Agri­cul­ture and Fish­eries, Ravi Rati­ram, for the suc­cess­ful Black-Eyed Bean Har­vest, which could be a ma­jor game chang­er for our coun­try, strength­en­ing na­tion­al food se­cu­ri­ty.

Plant­i­ng trees is al­so one of the most prac­ti­cal ac­tions cit­i­zens can take against glob­al warm­ing. Trees ab­sorb car­bon diox­ide, cool sur­round­ing ar­eas through shade and evap­o­tran­spi­ra­tion, re­duce flood­ing by im­prov­ing wa­ter ab­sorp­tion, sta­bilise soils and im­prove air qual­i­ty. Ur­ban green­ery al­so helps re­duce tem­per­a­tures in built-up ar­eas.

Bees, but­ter­flies, hum­ming­birds, bats and oth­er pol­li­na­tors are es­sen­tial to agri­cul­ture. Yet, pol­li­na­tor pop­u­la­tions are de­clin­ing be­cause of habi­tat loss and en­vi­ron­men­tal change. Plant­i­ng flow­er­ing trees and gar­dens cre­ates habi­tats and food sources for these vi­tal species.

Flow­er­ing trees such as poui could be plant­ed along high­ways, road­sides, parks and pub­lic spaces. A na­tion­al pro­gramme of road­side tree plant­i­ng would sup­port bio­di­ver­si­ty, beau­ti­fy the coun­try, en­hance tourism ap­peal and cre­ate a stronger sense of na­tion­al pride.

In 1986, when the NAR gov­ern­ment as­sumed of­fice, it in­sti­tut­ed a na­tion­al beau­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­gramme. Peo­ple par­tic­i­pat­ed en­thu­si­as­ti­cal­ly be­cause they felt they were con­tribut­ing to a bet­ter na­tion. We need that spir­it again.

I of­ten rec­om­mend gar­den­ing as a ther­a­peu­tic tool to re­duce stress, anx­i­ety and de­pres­sion while en­cour­ag­ing phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty.

Cor­pus Christi presents a unique op­por­tu­ni­ty for the Gov­ern­ment to in­sti­tute a co­or­di­nat­ed na­tion­al plant­i­ng cam­paign. Com­pe­ti­tions could re­ward the best com­mu­ni­ty gar­dens and school projects. Cit­i­zens could be en­cour­aged to plan.

The goal would be sim­ple: every cit­i­zen plants some­thing. In a world fac­ing cli­mate change, ris­ing food costs, bio­di­ver­si­ty loss and in­creas­ing so­cial stress, plant­i­ng a tree is no longer just a sym­bol­ic act. It is an in­vest­ment in food se­cu­ri­ty, en­vi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion, pub­lic health, and na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.