Agriculture gets $1.198b slice of budget pie

GOVERNMENT has allocated $1.198 billion to the agriculture sector in the 2020/2021 budget announced by Finance Minister Colm Imbert in Parliament on Monday. Within this allocation is a $500-million stimulus package which will be available in 2021.

Imbert said the contribution of the agri sector to the gross domestic product (GDP) has declined despite consistent investments by the State.

"Contribution of agriculture has been insignificant, accounting for approximately one per cent or less over the past decade.”

Imbert said while the State was able to meet its food demand through imports because of the oil and gas sector, the State cannot afford to continue along this path.

“Fortunately, from investments from the oil and gas sector, we were able to meet the demand of food through imports with a value of over $4 billion, but we can no longer tolerate a high food import bill."

“Declining oil and gas prices because of the covid19 pandemic experience has made food security a national objective. To that end we are committed to insulating the economy against the impact of shortages, supply chain disruption. We have decided to make agriculture and all its facets a tax-free industry.”

Imbert explained that the agricultural sector, for 2021 will have a stimulus package which will be attractive to investors and young people.

He said, “A $500 million stimulus package is thus being established and funded in 2021 which is in addition to the normal budgetary allocation to the agriculture sector. In fact, this represents a 70 per cent increase over last year’s allocation.”

Imbert noted state land leases, outdated technology, poor infrastructure, unpredictable weather patterns, unpredictable global markets, and diseases were some of the obstacles the sector faced.

Last year the agriculture sector was allocated $758,916.840, which amounted to 1.31 per cent of the budget. Projects included an electronic document management system, the opening of Moruga agro-processing and light industrial park, the Aripo livestock station and the sod-turning for the Gran Chemin fishing facility.

Other incentives included accelerated land tenure, training and technical support for producers, establishing a link between local production and health of the population to make food more attractive, guaranteed state agriculture purchasing and distribution of local content to supplement state-funded initiatives such as the school feeding programme and improved digital technology to assist with marketing and distribution.

Imbert added that there were many opportunities in the agriculture sector and with a technologically advanced approach more can be achieved. He said co-operation was necessary between agriculture and industries to build sustainable food systems.

He noted that bio-technology, water-saving technology, home gardening, hydroponics, aquaponics, agriculture community programmes and marine aquaculture, were some areas government planned to invest in.