News

Prime Minister the Hon Roosevelt Skerrit says compared to previous administrations, his government is unique in terms of its investment in Agriculture.

The Hon Prime minister spoke to GIS News this week following his visit to the Agri Investment Forum and Expo in Guyana which ran from May 19 to 21 2022

Prime Minister Skerrit says government’s renewed thrust in Agriculture will be comprehensive and is expected to transcend all Ministries, noting that Government’s commitment to Agriculture is evident in the sizeable investments being made in the agriculture sector.

“We are investing over twenty two million dollars in farm roads. We have the 67 million that we are investing with the loan from the World Bank. After every storm we have invested heavily into supporting farmers financially, technical support and so we have been very consistent with it. Obviously these things evolve and you have to evolve with it. There are dynamics that come up that were not part of the equation before and so we have an opportunity and that is why we are looking at different initiatives,” PM Skerrit explained.

Interest and involvement in the Agriculture sector is growing in Dominica and the Prime Minister says measures are being taken to address this and assist the farmers.

“There are a lot of proposals that have come through and what we are going to be doing now at the Ministry of Agriculture, is put a secretariat in place to do a profiling of the farmers or the people who have applied; because there are some who have land already, so what they need is the support. So we need to decide what kind of support they need and what is it they are going to be growing. And then there are people who have greenhouses but need to have them retrofitted and they need the technical support and so forth,” the Prime Minister noted.

 He added that they have “already identified the people who will serve as secretariat and we are hoping that by the profile we know exactly what each person needs. We will be providing financial support, in some cases we will provide land, we will provide greenhouses and we will provide labour for six months.”