Special fund, technology, and investments to advance agriculture sector

President Dr Irfaan Ali has outlined a comprehensive plan to further modernise the agriculture sector during an outreach with farmers at the Albion Community Centre in Region Six on Thursday.

The Head of State told a gathering of cash-crop farmers, rice farmers, sugar workers and fisherfolk of several government plans to advance the sector. These include the creation of a special development fund for agriculture, the inclusion of technology, and greater investment in markets.

The development fund would allow the government to co-invest with farmers and reduce interest rates, the President said. It would further expand the fiscal framework and address components of the taxation system to give more support to farmers, while mitigating risks through co-investment with the government.

Some of the investments, the President stated, would include — for rice farmers in particular — the development of a modern storage and drying facility, ways to increase yield, and the inclusion of technology.

“So one of the things we will support you on, is we have to co-invest in the modern storage and drying facility; two we have to continue to work with you on increasing yield and productivity; three we will be working with you on how to create these integrated farms and identify crops with the technology and support for you to start up these integrated farms. So, if you have 100 acres of rice farm and you have 10 acres dedicated for a high value crop that is backed by technological support, then you are diversifying your risk portfolio… expanding your income portfolio and we make your agriculture more versatile.”

The President pointed to the use of technology as another way to optimise agriculture. He said farmers would be able to use their mobile devices to anticipate weather patterns and access information on diseases — so that their devices allow for extended service provision in real time.

“This is what modern agriculture is about and these are the investments we are making, expanding veterinary services, data driven decision-making, how to invest in technology, lab services here in the region to support you. So you can have early detection of diseases… early response, more predictable nature of the challenges that rice farmers are facing, we can have more flood modelling. These are important tools that are available in today’s world that would help us to support sustainable agriculture.”

Additionally, the President announced that, based on discussions with farmers, the government will now allow farmers with 30 acres of land or less to receive free fertiliser or its cash equivalent. The government is offering, free of cost, one bag of fertiliser per acre of land. Smaller farmers have, however, opted to receive the cash equivalent, and the government has made room for this option.

A farmer getting response to queries raised (OP photo)

President Ali greets a resident (OP photo)