Agriculture Ministry seeking out relief assistance for farmers

The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries is engaged in discussion with various stakeholders about the possibility of providing relief to farmers in the wake of rising fertiliser and other input costs.

Portfolio Minister, Floyd Green, said the relief is important in ensuring that farmers maintain production levels and increase crop yields.

Green said discussions have been taking place with representatives of local blender and supplier of fertiliser Newport Fersan.

“Coming out of that meeting we have agreed that the Newport Fersan team will look at new formulations of fertiliser that utilise cheaper inputs but still give our farmers the requisite nutrition that the plants need, and they will come back to us on that. We are also looking at whether there needs to be direct intervention from the Ministry in relation to the cost of fertiliser,” he told a virtual press conference last Wednesday.

Green informed that an update will be provided to the nation shortly.

“I have also asked the Ministry's team to meet with our various livestock associations in relation to feed cost and to see how we can do some direct intervention to at least soften the burden of these increase in cost,” he added.

He noted that while the costs are being driven by worldwide occurrences, “I want our farmers and fishers to know that we are going to be working with the input providers to see how we can ease that burden”.

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