MP has plans to subsidise fertiliser, pesticides

 SUMKAR MP Ken Fairweather is launching a campaign to change the way the agriculture sector is supported.

He wants to rebuild and grow the sector through agriculture subsidies for fertiliser and pesticides. 

“I have witnessed any number of government, commodity boards and industry responses, stabilisation subsidies, loans, grants, gifts, free fuel, blatant cash handouts and so on. All of them have one thing in common – they have all been failures,” Fairweather said. 

“I’m now launching a campaign to change the way we support our agricultural sector. First, subsidies for agriculture inputs; these key inputs include fertiliser and pesticides.

“Today our agricultural producers, plantation and small holder producers alike-in our cocoa, copra and palm oil industries are really struggling because of a combination of very low world prices, pests such as the cocoa borer, and low productivity because fertiliser is unaffordable. 

“If we want to be serious about not just rebuilding our agriculture sector, but growing it substantially, we have to make fertiliser and pesticides available to our whole agricultural sector at prices growers can afford to pay.”

He said if all agricultural industries have access to fertiliser, then the country would double the production of cash crops, and food crops for domestic consumption.

He said the other advantage of subsidising fertiliser and pesticides was that the opportunity for the fraud, abuse and misuse was much less than cash handouts.