Call for districts to help farmers

AGRICULTURE and Livestock Minister John Simon is encouraging districts in the country to subsidise commodity prices for farmers.
Simon said this would encourage farming and raise production of commodities and other agricultural products in the country.
He said that the Government was now injecting cash into the rural economy to boost the agriculture sector and MPs needed to use the funds for agriculture interventions.
“The Government has given a lot of money to support the agriculture sector,” he told The National.
“The first funding being K1 million to each district, that’s K89 million to 89 districts allocated under the Covid funds.
“K1 million is directly for agriculture intervention to all the districts.
“The Government has also allocated another K80 million to the National Development Bank.
“According to the break up, K40 million to agriculture is with the bank.
“Now they have, again, under the supplementary budget, allocated another K50 million to the sector, K30 million for price subsidy or support for the sector and K20 million for interventions which is very good.”
Simon said his district, Maprik, would use its agriculture funding for price support of commodities.