Agriculture Minister Roland Royer has announced that the government will make funding available through a special facility under an ongoing agriculture programme to benefit farmers on the island this week.
He made the announcement during the launching ceremony of the National Youth in Agriculture (NAYA) Programme held at the State House Conference Center on Friday.
“We also recognize the issues surrounding timely payments to you as farmers and the access to consistent markets and reliable markets, I must say,” he said.
He explained that in the last budget address, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit announced that $5 million would be made available to the Dominica Export Import Agency (DEXIA) so that farmers will be paid within 24 to 36 hours.
“And also he mentioned that investment would have been made for the expansion of regional markets by investing in refrigerated containers and the development of Buy Dominica Depots in strategic islands in the Caribbean,” Royer stated.
He continued, “So today, I am happy to announce that the financing of these initiatives and other interventions such as support to livestock farmers, support to the modernization of a cropping system, restoration and development of fish landing sites, and support to agro-enterprises, that funding will be made available through a special facility under the ongoing agriculture programme by next week.”
Royer said young farmers will stand to benefit from these programmes.
“You as young farmers will stand to benefit from these programmes and many other initiatives which we are currently undertaking at the ministry and those we are currently designing,” he noted.
How does that work you encourage agriculture but when the farmer reaches the Port in Portsmouth with their loaded trucks of produce the Port security terrorize them, treat them like it’s a favor the Port is doing them by giving them access, the Port searches the vehicles and ask for license and insurance for access to the Port if they are not licensed and insured they cannot go on to offload. The Ports of Grenada, St Vincent, St Lucia and even the Caricom Port in Trinidad are much larger and have more activity yet does not ask for license and insurance. It is just another senseless harassment of productive citizens making things unnecessarily more difficult, there is a traffic department in the local police who have the responsibility to check and enforce traffic laws.