Tufton

The agricultural sector, which the Government has been touting to help drag Jamaica through tough economic times, is one of the few that received a real increase in the estimates that Finance Minister Audley Shaw presented to Parliament on Tuesday.

The $7.1 billion allocated to Dr Christopher Tufton's ministry is $1 billion, or a little over 16 per cent more than what he got for the last fiscal year. But in real terms, taking into account inflation, that hike is around four per cent.

The sector was one of the few areas of growth last year with the latest data from the Planning Institute of Jamaica showing an increase in output of 7.5 per cent in the third quarter of 2008 - the first quarterly increase in the sector since April to June 2007.

While a big chunk of the budgetary allocation to the agriculture and fisheries ministry, 42 per cent or $3.2 billion, is being provided by international agencies for specific projects, Tufton will still have more money this year to do a number of projects he has identified as priorities.

These include extension services for farmers and business development plans for the sector as he tries to move farming into the 21st century.

In fact, one of the key agencies that Tufton plans to use to spearhead his growth drive, the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), has received a $58-million increase in its recurrent budget and $19 million more on the capital side for crop production and extension services.

Money to train

This will give RADA more money to train extension officers and to increase the number of officers in the field, a development which Tufton has indicated is key to his modernisation plans for the sector.

The agriculture ministry will also have $40 million to facilitate training of farmers in areas such as crop and livestock production, pest and disease control, and farm irrigation.

The recently formed Agricultural Investment Fund of Jamaica (AIFJ) gets just over $36 million for its daily expenses and $40 million for capital spending. The AIFJ is a new entity created by the merger of the Agricultural Development Corporation and the Agricultural Support Services Productive Projects Fund.

It will function as the business facilitation department of the agriculture ministry and will have responsibility for investment promotion and market development.

The AIFJ is to be designated an approved financial institution which will make it eligible to access funds from the Development Bank of Jamaica which is the main source of loan funds for agricultural ventures.

More money has also been allocated to fisheries, which receives $147 million up from $128 million.

Other target areas for Tufton, such as research and development, also received additional money this year.

These include the banana-breeding project which gets $42 million, up from $7.5 million last year.

This will give the Banana Board more money for its research project on the development and breeding of disease-resistant types of bananas.

arthur.hall@gleanerjm.com