The Ministry of Agriculture, last Friday, rolled out a programme in which the government will pay for tractor services on 200 acres of land across the country.
“So if you are a farmer, you need a tractor to clear a piece of land. Instead of going in there with your cutlass and your saw and your hoe, you can get tractor services provided through the Ministry of Agriculture to clear this land,” Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves told the media last week.
“So you go to the operator. It’s five acres of land, three acres of land. ‘I want you to clear this.’ He gives you an invoice, you take that invoice into the Farmer Support Company, or you take it into your extension officer and they will facilitate the payment to that tractor operator so you can get this land cleared,” Gonsalves further stated.
He said the government believes that as one of the few major agro processing countries in the region, there’s an opportunity for St. Vincent and the Grenadines amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
You’re hearing, you’re reading about the shortages in food supply and all of these things. And we think that is our opportunity for St. Vincent and Grenadines to expand some of its export offerings during this time.
“You see where we’ve been consistently exporting to Trinidad and Tobago, we’ve resumed exports to Barbados, we’re receiving demand for products from other places in the Caribbean.
“And we’re investing in agriculture heavily in that regard. And the Minister of Agriculture is also leading efforts for us to get refrigerated containers so that things that would normally spoil quickly can be stored longer.”
Gonsalves said that the government is also providing seeds to farmers free of charge.
“We’re providing reduced prices on other inputs, because we want, just as we’re investing in public works, to keep people employed during this crisis, we’re also investing heavily in agriculture and in the skills of the farmers and fisherfolk of St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” he said.
The farmers should have been encouraged by assistance years ago, not just during this year of re-election.
Happy for the effort, better now than never
So do you feel that there shouldn’t be any assistance or offers because it’s, election year?
Ok.. I hear you… Mr progressive… You people just out of this world… All because of hatred.
Bovine Debeak. its what’s called the truth. If there was no election this year there would be no tractor offered.
You appear to be another one who wants to make wrong appear right.
This is the same government that said agriculture is over, now its the time for tourism.
Well now its time for agriculture and its tourism that’s over for at least the next three years.
The hotels being built will now fall back on the Vincentian people to pay because no operators will be coming, many will even file for bankruptcy.
Yes its what’s called the truth.
All the politics are coming from the dynasty not from commentators who draw attention to the anomalies.
It’s about time this Government acknowledge the importance of farmers and agriculture in SVG. Food security is vital to the survival and prosperity of any nation. ‘ Where there is no vision the people perish.” Take politics out of feeding the nation.
Some of you Mofos, everything is politics motivated, you guys make me sick, some of you need the tractor service for your brain.
Camillo is right. It is sad that we have been sending so much to Trinidad and Trinidad loads much of what we send them onto ships that sail past our islands to the USA and makes a profit.
At the moment Russia is SCREAMING FOR GINGER! They will pay 4-times more than what we are getting from Trinidad but if we pay no attention to this we will again be the suckers and Trinidad will give us less than half that amount and sell it to the world and make the big money. Sometimes we appear to be the over-worked dumb jackass of the Caribbean. It is time we change that.Camillio, Saboto and team have an opportunity here!
I talked to the Minister of Trade for South America from the country of Belarus many years ago and they would take banana from us. MOSTLY THEY WANT FISH, but we can make trade with many goods in many places, we just have to work out the mechanics to facilitate it. CAMILLIO IS RIGHT, THIS IS A GOOD TIME TO DO JUST THAT!!!
Jigga go ask Bigga about politics, they almost destroyed him, they destroyed his quarry and block business, but you and those you so willingly support will never keep him down.
Everything they say and do is about politics, they have even politicised the corona virus.