Rebate system needs overhaul, dairy farmers say

Even as rebate programmes remain available to dairy farmers, calls are growing for the system to be modernised amid concerns over declining cattle genetics and the need for stronger collaboration among farmers and agricultural stakeholders.

Farmers, government officials and other dairy industry figures met in a forum to explore opportunities, challenges, and innovative solutions that will support the future sustainability and growth of the milk industry.

The Pine Hill Dairy Farmers Engagement Forum, under the theme: The Next 60 – Shaping the Milk Production Industry in Barbados, was held at the Radisson Aquatica on Thursday, as the former state-owned dairy observes its 60th anniversary. 

Arlie Connolly, senior agricultural assistant with the Ministry of Agriculture, outlined the government’s incentive and rebate programme, noting efforts are underway to improve public awareness.

“We have a very intensive and well-developed incentive package. Most of the farmers do make use of it…. Mr. James and I had a whole meeting just earlier this year in terms of rolling out a PR to get out to the farmers to push the incentives some more, and I said that we are planning to do that. The farmers will have a better idea of what is going on in the incentive programme.”

A 40 per cent rebate has been made available to farmers since 2024, but that has hardly been used, he said.

“Forty per cent rebate for components for dairy housing. That was increased, so it’s now 40 per cent up to a maximum of $60 000 for dairy housing. That was done from 2024 into this year for two years, so that is one of the ones that is coming up for expiration this year that was done in the 2024 estimates, and very few farmers have made use of that one from 2024.”

He added: “There are some old ones in there that they need to make use of. There are rebates for embryos, there is importation of livestock, there is also the component of dairy housing, and there’s also the milk parlour.”

Julia Holder, dairy farm development manager with Pine Hill Dairy, questioned whether consideration was being given for faster rebate processing and staged reimbursements to allow farmers quicker access to funds.

Connolly explained that while applications are processed by the ministry, payments are dependent on the release of funds from the Ministry of Finance. “Even though you might see the officer come to you within a week or whatever, you still have to wait until the money is released from finance.”

He, however, noted that improvements have been made to speed up approvals.

“The process has been changed somewhat to make it a little bit faster, and we have done different tiers of authorisation for funding, so that has sped up the process because years ago everything had to go up to the permanent secretary for clearance, but now we have done it in tiers.”

Farmer Paul Davis also raised concerns about transparency and traceability within the rebate system, arguing that farmers are often unable to properly identify payments deposited into their bank accounts.

Farmer Paul Davis. (Photo Credit: Lourianne Graham)

“The challenges that we see from the farmer perspective with the rebate system is it needs modernisation.

“What we really should be getting is an acknowledgement and maybe like a case number. Right now, it is lacking in that aspect of it.”

He also pointed to issues with the recently introduced heifer raising rebate programme, which was designed to encourage farmers to retain female calves rather than sell them. “Some of us have made applications. We’ve got no acknowledgement of those applications. We don’t know what state it’s at, we don’t know when we can get any of the money.”

He further explained that communication gaps between agencies involved in the programme were creating confusion for farmers.

Patrick Butcher, farm manager at Victoria Farms, said most dairy farms still rely heavily on manual record-keeping. He warned that the lack of reliable farm data remains a major challenge for the sector.

“Most record and data keeping has been done manually. It tends to be written except for maybe one or two farms. I know that Mr Davis, for example, he has a programme that he’s been using for a number of years and quite successfully at that. It is one of the things that the vet services and the ministry have been trying to bring online unsuccessfully. The reality is that there, there seems not to be enough data coming into the farms and in too many instances it is all verbal and cannot be accurately verified.”

Connolly, however, revealed that there is already a 50 per cent rebate available for farm record-keeping and computer technology but its not being claimed. 

“There’s rebate for maximum for procurement of multi-user license for farmers for programs to install, and you must have at least six months of data on your computer before you can get the rebate, but this rebate has been in the system now from since 2001. I don’t know of no farmer that has used it except Mr Davis.” 

Another farmer, McDonald Stevenson, also questioned the requirement for electronic cattle chips under the programme, arguing that the process was overly complicated and time-consuming.

He maintained that traditional tagging methods could still effectively identify animals.

“I can put tags in my cows, and you can come and see that I got 20 heifers. These are the numbers, and you can come any day and identify them.”

Connolly defended the electronic chip system, saying it provides traceability in cases of theft or slaughter.

“It’s not just a matter of tagging it. It’s to be able to trace that heifer.”

Connolly acknowledged the concerns surrounding the programme and said adjustments may be needed as the initiative evolves. He revealed they have already begun discussions with finance personnel to address issues within the wider rebate payment system.

(LG)