SHAR­LENE RAM­PER­SAD

The COVID-19 pan­dem­ic put a harsh spot­light on this coun­try’s food se­cu­ri­ty and Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert says, the Gov­ern­ment will now do all it can to en­sure that this coun­try can feed it­self.

Speak­ing dur­ing the pre­sen­ta­tion of the 2020/2021 Bud­get, with the theme “Re­set­ting the Econ­o­my for Growth and In­no­va­tion”, Im­bert said in the past, agri­cul­ture has con­tributed less than one per cent of the coun­try’s GDP.

Im­bert said the gov­ern­ment is now com­mit­ted to in­su­lat­ing the econ­o­my against food short­ages.

He said agri­cul­ture is now at the top of the Gov­ern­ment’s na­tion­al pol­i­cy agen­da.

Im­bert said a $500 mil­lion Agri­cul­ture Stim­u­lus Pack­age is be­ing es­tab­lished and fund­ed in 2021.

This is in ad­di­tion to the bud­getary al­lo­ca­tion to agri­cul­ture, Im­bert said.

He as­sured that land tenure is­sues would be re­solved and the Gov­ern­ment will guar­an­tee the pur­chase of pro­duce for its school feed­ing and oth­er pro­grammes.

He said there will al­so be a strong fo­cus on in­te­grat­ing tech­nol­o­gy in agri­cul­ture.