A St Philip farmer is appealing to the government for assistance with water storage with the provision of front-loaded rebates, as he says farmers in the St Philip area continue to struggle with inadequate irrigation supplies.
Francis Ifill, who raised the issue on Monday night during the St Philip Ideas Forum at the Princess Margaret Secondary School, received support from his area MP who was the former minister of agriculture.
Pointing to access to water as one of the biggest challenges facing farmers, Ifill said:
“The Sanford irrigation system is woefully inadequate, I’ve spoken on the matter before, I’ve raised a possible solution.” Ifill said.
He acknowledged government’s plans to construct a tertiary treatment plant and establish pipework to bring irrigation water to St Philip but stated farmers needed immediate solutions.
“As far as I’m aware, there’s no timeline. I don’t think any of the farmers in the area know when that will happen, but I’m pretty sure it’s not going to happen right away,” he said. “But we have to do something right now because lives and livelihoods are at stake.”
Ifill said farmers who depend on agriculture as their main source of income require reliable irrigation systems to sustain their operations.
“If you depend on farming like I do now to pay the mortgage, pay the land tax, and so forth, then you need to have proper irrigation, “I mean, I have not been able to farm anything meaningful since March.”
The farmer proposed that government use the Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation’s (BADMC) rebate system to provide assistance upfront for farmers to purchase water storage equipment, rather than requiring them to pay first and wait for reimbursement.
“What we need right now is a short-term solution because the long-term solution can’t help us. What we need to be able to do is harvest rainwater. Not a lot of rain, understood, but whatever little bit we can harvest would be of great help.”
He said farmers needed support with acquiring storage tanks and equipment to collect and distribute water.
“What I have proposed, I’ve raised this before, is that the government through the BADMC rebate system assists farmers in acquiring storage, the mechanism really to get the water from your roof or wherever into your storage area.”
Ifill said the current rebate process created challenges because farmers had to find the money upfront before receiving assistance:
“The usual model with the rebate system is that you spend your money upfront and then you several months before you can get a situation where you know.
“Let us put the money upfront. Give the rebates upfront so it will help the farmer because it’s, it’s a lot easier to pay half or something, then I have to pay the whole of something and then get back half.”
He suggested that assistance with storage tanks, guttering and pumps would allow farmers to increase production:
“If you can get the money upfront to help you with the storage and the guttering and whatever else, pumps, whatever else to get it going, that will put us in a better position, so that we can actually do real farming and contribute to moving this economy forward.”
MP for St Philip South and Former Agriculture Minister, Indar Weir. (Photo Credit: BT)
Former agriculture minister Indar Weir, the St Philip South MP, backed Ifill’s proposal, saying front-loading rebates was an idea that should be considered:
“I can agree with you that there should be some front-loading of the rebates so that you can proceed to do your own water harvesting, It’s a very good idea, one that I would strongly recommend, be taken on board so that rather than ask the government to build out dams to do the water harvesting, farmers in Sanford can do the water harvesting by capturing the water from the roofs, and I do not think it is an unreasonable request to ask for the rebates to be front loaded.”
Weir explained that the rebates were already allocated to the Ministry each financial year, saying the issue was how they could be used:
“The rebates are actually given to the ministry every financial year, so there is just a question of policy and how they can be utilised.”
He also encouraged farmers to take advantage of BADMC’s contract growing programme, which he said was designed to help improve production planning.
“The problem that we’ve always had prior to this administration is with farmers growing the same thing all at the same time.
“And this contract growing programme is to help farmers to grow specific crops within a mix of crops that have been identified by the ministry.”
The programme allows farmers to enter agreements with BADMC to supply its pack house, while receiving support with inputs.
“The BADMC actually gives the support to the farmers in terms of the inputs, and coming out of that, then they would subtract the cost of the inputs from your harvest and between you and them you come up with a price.”
Digital tools could also help improve coordination within the farming sector by tracking what is being planted and when crops would be available for harvest, he added.
“A lot of information can be submitted now online; there are WhatsApp groups within farming communities, so a lot of information can actually be shared with the ministry and the BADMC.”
Weir said farmers should also be connected with existing extension services:
“So the fact that you’re saying you don’t know your extension officer would mean that we wish, we will want to flag that to make sure that you get a visit.”
He reiterated that the main policy decision required was whether rebates could be provided upfront to help farmers invest in water harvesting.
(LG)
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