Agriculture Ministry official defends subsidies for farmers

Chief Agricultural Officer Keeley Holder has defended Government’s continued subsidies for the sector, saying that such assistance is necessary given the unprecedented challenges local farmers face.

Her comments came during Thursday’s discussion on the Appropriation Bill, 2022 in the House, where she said that while some question the amount of money being offered to farmers – which in the last year was $1.2 million in incentives – the industry is at the stage where significant investment in research and development is required to reach a comfortable level of stability.

“There is a lot of work that needs to be done in terms of innovation and the research and development to help our farmers to be more productive and competitive,” explained the Ministry of Agriculture and Food and Nutritional Security official.

“….Obviously we understand that plants take time to grow, research takes time to be done, but at the same time you have an environment that has been rapidly changing and farmers have been asked to respond to it.”

Holder pointed out that farmers continue to endure the effects of climate change, price increases in raw materials, and other global effects on trade, but yet are expected to keep their costs low for the local market.

She said subsidies should not be seen as only beneficial to farmers, but for the general public as well.

“We had last year an ash fall event, we had a freak storm event, and we also had a hurricane, the first one in 60 years. Each time it means that farmers had to sometimes start from scratch with nothing.

“These are very difficult times, and the same way that we provide assistance to persons in the community [who] lost their homes – up until now the Ministry of Agriculture through the General Supplies Committee is still provisioning food for persons who have lost their homes –, we also have a responsibility to provide assistance to our farming community who will be responsible for providing food for us in the event of a serious event.”

Holder said while the authorities did not want a situation where farmers are dependent on Government for a handout, “at the same time we have to recognise that in transforming the agriculture sector, which for the last 40 years has been declining, there has to be a point at which we provide interventions in the short term to assist farmers”.

She said the medium- to long-term goal was to help farmers increase their productivity through enhanced research and development. (SB)