Narine: Hold strain, relief coming in two to four years

"Earlier this year we had some problems with food prices going up and it was really because of the water management," he said.

He said water management of agriculture had fallen by the wayside. During the last three years , however, Government had done ponding, irrigation and sluice gate projects. He said the desalination of the Oropouche Lagoon would take about five to six years.

Asked if these projects would bring price relief, Narine said: "There is a gestation period in agriculture. You don’t spend money this year and get the returns this year. You are speaking about putting systems that would affect production levels in two, three or four years," he said.

Narine said the management of the water supply was important because once there is no water for agriculture in the Dry Season, prices would go up. He said these new sytems would help farmers plant all year round.

Narine announced that mid-term agriculture had received an additional $35 million.

He said $13.4 million would be spent on agricultural access roads in the St George and St Andrew/St David $7 million) areas, water management in the Oropouche Lagoon Basin and the Plum Mitan area ($8.6 million) to compensate l3 landowners whose lands had been compulsorily acquired by the State ($6 million) and for the Agricultural Sector Reform Programme. He said Government was hoping to accelerate the land distribution process.

He said Government hoped to maintain higher levels of funding for agriculture so that the food import bill could be reduced, and people living below the poverty line could be taken out of their economic misery and acquire lands and have an economic life through agriculture.

Asked if he was happy with the overall allocation to agriculture, Narine said if one checked over the last 14 years, one would see that agriculture was getting more money under this Government than under previous administrations.

Noting that the Minister of Agriculture had the capacity to deal with certain funding, Narine said he was hoping that with the establishment of the Rural Development Company, the ministry would now have the capacity to deal with increased funding.