More protection

Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Indar Weir today promised that new legislation governing praedial larceny will provide better protection for farmers on the island.

Leading off debate in Parliament this morning on the Protection of Agricultural Products Bill, 2022, Weir announced that one of the major changes would see penalties for persons found guilty of praedial larceny being significantly tougher, with a maximum fine of $100 000 or five years in prison.

He said the previous maximum fine of $5 000 was simply not enough to deter criminals.

“All of the farmers were adamant, all of the stakeholders were adamant; the BAS [Barbados Agricultural Society], all of the farming organisations were adamant that the penalties were not stiff enough and that people were only getting a slap on the wrist,” Weir explained.

“Therefore, the recommendation was for the fine once convicted to go to $100 000 or five years in prison. These should serve as a deterrent to people who engage in praedial larceny.”

The minister said what was also extremely important was that stakeholders had been consulted and had made major contributions to the new legislation,

Weir said when the Bill was introduced in 2017 by the previous administration it was one of “utter confusion” and he charged that several missteps had been made, including not consulting with stakeholders.

In fact, he contended that farmers were being “targeted” in that piece of legislation.

“We have looked at the legislation and we have sought to address how we can introduce a better way of protecting the farmers. Therefore, it meant that we had to look at repealing the Praedial Larceny Prevention Act, Cap 142A, which was part of the 2017 legislation and we then had to also repeal the Protection of Agricultural Products and Livestock Bill, 2017, to come up with legislation more suitable based on our consultations with the farmers, with the Barbados Police Service, and with the vendors.

“We saw it necessary to consult with everybody because of the implications for their existence but equally the way they were being targeted in the 2017 Bill.”

Weir also revealed several initiatives to assist farmers.

The minister said hi-tech drones would be used in surveillance, livestock would be tagged and produce would be tracked to help manage and enforce the legislation.

As it related to enforcement, he said police would be able to stop and search as well as charge persons without a warrant.

However, Weir said more than just legislation was required.

“Legislation on its own will not get us to where we want to be. We have to have a mix of approaches in order for us to come up with the right metric to be able to tackle this problem,” he said.

“I am confident we have taken the right decisions as far as moving to such systems where we can then address this matter of praedial larceny.”

(randybennett@barbadostoday.bb)