Help for Farmers Affected by Drought

The Government has allocated $385 million towards the Production Incentives Project to mitigate the effects of drought conditions impacting farmers.

Details are outlined in the 2017/18 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives.

For the next fiscal year, the project aims to procure and deliver one hundred 650- gallon water tanks, procure and deliver on-farm irrigation kits for 200 farmers in drought-prone areas, support productivity capacity of greenhouses (greenhouse repairs/improvement) owned by 25 farmers, rehabilitate water-catchment sources supplying water to 200 farmers, and provide water conveyance equipment from rehabilitated sources for 600 farmers.

It also seeks to procure on-farm irrigation equipment/systems for cooperatives to benefit 200 farmers, install and assemble on-farm irrigation systems, rehabilitate selected facilities at the Bodles Research Station, and provide support to sugar-cane farmers.

Additionally, $150 million has been set aside for the Farm Roads project to support the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries’ initiative to improve the accessibility of priority unpaved secondary and tertiary earth, stone/rock and gravel access roads for motorised and non-motorised services that have been damaged over time.

The project also aims to continue the rehabilitation and maintenance of 124km of farm roads in 13 parishes.