Clarke, Davies to work out subsidy for farmers
FALMOUTH, Trelawny
Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke will meet with Finance Minister Omar Davies to work out a subsidy on fertiliser and animal feed, the prices of which are said to be crippling more than 30,000 small farmers in Trelawny.
“I recognise the pressure with the price of fertiliser and with animal feed, and I will be making some approaches to the minister of finance and our people in the ministry to see what we can do to cushion the effects,” Clarke said.
At the same time, vice-chairman of the Trelawny Parish Council Fernandez ‘Bingy’ Smith is urging the government to move quickly.
“My concern is the drastic increase in the price of major farm inputs, such as insecticide, fungicide, weedicide, animal feed and fertilisers. In the case of fertiliser, what we are seeing is an over 116 per cent increase since January last year and this continues to increase unabated,” Smith noted.
He continued: “I am calling on the Government to step in and do some investigation as these farmers are now being driven under the poverty line”.
Pointing out that it is now costing yam farmers 30 per cent more than last year to produce the tuber, which is the mainstay of many communities in Trelawny, Smith predicted that the consumer would ultimately feel the pinch, when farmers charged higher prices to offset production costs.
In the meantime, Clarke is recommending that farmers closely follow instructions on fertiliser and animal feed packages so as to conserve on their usage.
“The efficient use of the fertilisers. those are some of the things we are going to look at. Another area we are going to look at is organic farming, that is another way to go,” Clarke advised.
