Bridgetown.
The Ministry of Agriculture is embarking on a new incentive scheme for farmers.
Speaking to the press at his Graeme Hall, Christ Church office, Minister of Agriculture Dr David Estwick, said the former incentive scheme was based on rebate programme that has proved to be not much of an incentive for farmers at all, because they had to find the money to pay for supplies or equipment and apply to the Minister for a rebate after.
The Minister said the new incentive scheme should have an impact on the national food security and would be available to farmers immediately.
He added that the former system had not been effective in improving the cash flow of farmers who used it.
" For many years farmers have been saying that they have challenges with the level of support that has been provided to them by the Government. Part of the problem was that many of the farmers'incentive programmes were rebate programmes. The framers had to find the money up front to go and buy the implements to execute an agriculture process", Estwick said.
He said said that whether it was simple things such as spray cans, irrigation equipment or other heavier piecesof equipment the farmers faced the problem of having to buy the item up front and then applying to the Minister of Agriculture for a rebate.
The new system would allow all farmers to go to a supplier of agricultural materials and get the value of what the rebate used to be upfront in an local purchase order (LPO) take it to the supplier and used it to buy the item.
