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Rambharat clears the air

Second right, CEO Caribbean Sea and Air Marketing, Mark Forgenie, receives a cheque from, at left, Minister of Agriculture Land and Fishries Clarence Rambharat, Minister of Trade and Industry Paula Gopee-Scoon and MP for Moruga/Tableland Dr Lovell Francis during a Moruga Hill Rice Grant Ceremony and Facility Tour, which took place in Moruga. PHOTO BY ANIL RAMPERSAD.
Second right, CEO Caribbean Sea and Air Marketing, Mark Forgenie, receives a cheque from, at left, Minister of Agriculture Land and Fishries Clarence Rambharat, Minister of Trade and Industry Paula Gopee-Scoon and MP for Moruga/Tableland Dr Lovell Francis during a Moruga Hill Rice Grant Ceremony and Facility Tour, which took place in Moruga. PHOTO BY ANIL RAMPERSAD.

AGRICULTURE Minister Clarence Rambharat said farmers, just like everyone else in the country, are entitled to the fruits of their labour. Rambharat made this point at a grant-funding ceremony for agro-entrepreneurs Moruga Hill Rice in Moruga, on Tuesday.

Rambharat said a comment he made about farmers driving vanity vehicles was taken out of context in an article in another daily newspaper. Clearing the air, he explained, “I wasn’t talking about our serious farmers and our producing farmers.

Rambharat and Minister of Trade and Industry Paula Gopee-Scoon look at some of the Moruga Rice products during a Moruga Hill Rice Grant Ceremony and Facility Tour, which took place in Moruga.
PHOTO BY ANIL RAMPERSAD.

“I was really pointing to those persons who have a farmer’s card, are registered farmers and access the incentive without producing anything in relation to agriculture.”

Rambharat said this is something that has "plagued the incentive programme for a long time.”

He said Government’s intention is "to continue to promote incentives to help boost our good farmers.”

Minister of Agriculture Land and Fisheries Clarence Rambharat use his cell phone to capture an image of the Moruga Hill Rice during a Grant Ceremony and Facility Tour, which took place in Moruga.
PHOTO BY ANIL RAMPERSAD.

Rambharat said one such incentive, announced in last year’s budget by Finance Minister Colm Imbert, was a $100,000 grant which focuses on things such as increasing efficiency, lowering the cost of production and reducing the stages of bringing food from farm to table. He said this grant would make a big difference to how “our good farmers operate.”

Some of the Moruga Hill Rice on display during a Moruga Hill Rice Grant Ceremony and Facility Tour, which took place in Moruga.

Rambharat said he hoped to have been able to formally launch this grant on October 1.

Finance Minister Colm Imbert presents the 2018/2019 budget in the House of Representatives on that day.

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