Peter Bunting has touted the People’s National Party’s proposed Agricultural Development Fund as a tool to inject new technology in local farming, if it returns to office after the General Election on September 3.

The Opposition spokesman on citizen security made the point while responding to a question at Tuesday night’s election debate on how a future PNP administration would reduce the food importation bill in a meaningful way.

“Under the JLP administration, the imported food cost has doubled; it was US$800 million ten years ago, [and] it is now $1.6 billion. That US$800 million or about a J$150 billion should be going into the pockets of the farmers of south Manchester, south St Elizabeth, and farmers all over Jamaica,” Bunting asserted.

He noted that the PNP has committed to forming an Agricultural Development Fund to assist local farmers.

“This is going to ensure that we inject new technology, new machinery into our farming communities. It is going to ensure that we put adequate post-harvest storage and processing facilities in place to reduce the 30 per cent or more that’s lost,” Bunting indicated.

He added: “We’re going to ensure that funding is available for our farmers.”

His teammate, Kisha Anderson reiterated the PNP’s commitment to the farmers and the Jamaican people to reduce importation by 25 per cent in its first term.

“We also commit to helping farmers access financing at more affordable rates and terms. We also commit to helping them with products, such as insurance, to ensure that when natural disasters hit, the impact to them for recovery is not as high,” Anderson stated.

– Sugar Ray Thomas