Sen. Keith Clouden

An independent Senator on the island is totally unhappy with the manner in which the Keith Mitchell-led government is handling the critical agriculture sector on the island.

The farmer's representative in the Senate, Keith Clouden said that farmers are complaining bitterly and have become very frustrated with promise made to them by the Ministry of Agriculture to make loan funds available to them under the Agricultural Enterprise Development Programme.

He claimed that over 200 farmers have already made application to the Ministry of Agriculture in the last two months for assistance under the programme, but that not a single project has received disbursement of funds to date.

He feared that this might just be another one of government's politically motivated projects purely aimed at raising "the hopes of our farmers and not at all intended to objectively move Agriculture Production forward".

Sen Clouden also took issue with recent statements made by Public Utilities and Agriculture Minister, Gregory Bowen that the failure of farmers to own the lands on which they farm is a major stumbling block.

The senior government minister was quoted as saying that farmers' land tenureship is the principal reason why the programme has not gotten off the ground. According to Clouden, a farmer by profession this statement "is totally unacceptable and misconceived".

He said the Ministry of Agriculture is fully aware of this peculiar problem facing many farmers in the country for as long as one can recall and that there are ways to work around this obstacle. He urged Minister Bowen to consider the process of establishing Bill of Sale Procedures as one possible alternative option where appropriate in order to deal with the issue.

Sen. Clouden pointed out that whenever the funds are disbursed he would like to see it done with some degree of caution. He called for funds to be made available only to projects that are sound, workable and sustainable, despite any land tenureship problems that might exist.

He pleaded with the Mitchell government to stop complaining about problems in the agriculture sector and to do nothing in order to allay the fears of farmers "that this NNP Government really and truly do not care about the welfare of the farmers and their families in this country".

According to Sen. Clouden, if the multi-million dollar programme is not expeditiously implemented, it will have a serious adverse effect on agriculture production and productivity in the country.

If this is not done, he said it would leave farmers to face further economic hardship and frustration, as well as to completely demoralise the farming community.