Over $3 mil­lion in grants were re­cent­ly dis­trib­uted to 31 farm­ers as part of Cy­cle 7 of the Agri­cul­tur­al Fi­nance Sup­port Pro­gramme (Agro-In­cen­tive Grant).

The re­cip­i­ents rep­re­sent a di­verse cross-sec­tion of the agri­cul­tur­al sec­tor, in­clud­ing small-scale farm­ers and large agribusi­ness­es.

The funds will be used for var­i­ous in­no­v­a­tive projects such as state-of-the-art ir­ri­ga­tion sys­tems, hy­dro­pon­ic sys­tems, so­lar pan­el in­stal­la­tions, shade hous­es, and farm im­prove­ments to meet good agri­cul­tur­al prac­tices stan­dards, in­vest­ments in new breed­ing stock for live­stock, and ad­vanced fish­ing equip­ment.

In his ad­dress at the min­istry’s head of­fice in Ch­agua­nas, Min­is­ter of Agri­cul­ture, Land and Fish­eries, Kaz­im Ho­sein, em­pha­sised the sig­nif­i­cance of this ini­tia­tive, stat­ing, "Through­out our pro­ceed­ings to­day, you will all recog­nise the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture, Land and Fish­eries is not just fund­ing projects. We are in­vest­ing in the po­ten­tial of our land, the in­ge­nu­ity of our peo­ple, and the health of our na­tion."

The min­is­ter fur­ther high­light­ed the broad­er eco­nom­ic im­pli­ca­tions of the grant, not­ing that it ex­tends far be­yond im­me­di­ate fi­nan­cial sup­port.

"By fos­ter­ing a cul­ture of in­no­va­tion and ef­fi­cien­cy, we are paving the way for T&T to be­come a leader in the Caribbean's agro-in­dus­try. This ini­tia­tive is a cor­ner­stone in our ef­forts to achieve food se­cu­ri­ty, re­duce our im­port bill and open new av­enues for ex­port," he added.

A state­ment from the min­istry said the agro-in­cen­tive grant is a piv­otal com­po­nent of the min­istry's vi­sion for a mod­ern, com­pet­i­tive, and sus­tain­able agri­cul­tur­al sec­tor.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, it said the min­is­ter has been ac­tive­ly work­ing to en­sure that the ad­min­is­tra­tive arm of the min­istry be­comes more ac­ces­si­ble and treats farm­ers and fish­er­folk with the dig­ni­ty and re­spect they de­serve, giv­en their pro­found re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.

Ho­sein high­light­ed the Agri­cul­tur­al In­cen­tive Pro­gramme (AIP), which of­fers cash re­bates and ex­emp­tions in 92 cat­e­gories to sup­port di­verse agri­cul­tur­al needs.

El­i­gi­ble reg­is­tered farm­ers and fish­er­folk can ben­e­fit from in­cen­tives for ve­hi­cle pur­chas­es, in­te­grat­ed pest man­age­ment sys­tems, and ad­vance­ments in live­stock, tree crops, and agro-pro­cess­ing.

Ho­sein added that the farm­ers' badge must be ac­ces­si­ble to all, un­der­scor­ing the min­istry's com­mit­ment to sup­port­ing reg­is­tered farm­ers and fish­er­folk in their pur­suit of ex­cel­lence.

Symon De No­bri­ga, Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter, Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, al­so not­ed that it is es­sen­tial for this coun­try's agri­cul­tur­al com­mu­ni­ty to take ad­van­tage of the op­por­tu­ni­ties and grants be­ing pro­vid­ed and ac­tive­ly seek ways to in­no­vate and grow.