Food research council in the works
Date: Tue 19-Oct-1993
Paper Page: 15
Publication: Daily Nation
THE MINISTRY of Agriculture is setting up a National Agricultural Research
Council to make agricultural research in Barbados more efficient.
To be headed by the Chief Agricultural Officer, it will also draw representation
from both the public and private sectors.
This was the main disclosure from Minister of Agriculture David Bowen as he
addressed a World Food Day Awards ceremony recently.
In addition the Ministry will be promoting cooperatives among small farmers as a
means of increasing farming efficiency and improving farm incomes.
He noted the extension services operated by the Ministry of Agriculture Food and
Fisheries and the Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation
will be restructured.
Bowen said the Ministry will strengthen its capability to generate and
distribute information relating to the production and marketing of agricultural
commodities, with emphasis on appropriate technology for large and small
producers.
He stressed that the restructuring of the agricultural sector is a key policy
objective of the Agricultural Sectoral Plan for the 1993-2000 period.
But according to the Minister this restructuring will, however, require new
sectoral investment and it will be necessary to have proper credit arrangements
in place in order to encourage farmers to invest.
"Government considers that the agricultural sector will grow and develop
only if the farming community has reasonable access to both short-term and
medium-term credit on appropriate terms.
"Steps will therefore be taken to ensure that "development type"
funding is available to farmers in the years ahead."