Local farmers receive grants from government for hurricane damages

Fifteen local farmers who suffered losses on their farms due to the passage of Hurricane Fiona in September last year have received disaster relief grants from the government.

On Tuesday, January 31, 2023, at a simple ceremony held at the Kew Town Farmers Market in Providenciales, Minister with responsibility for Agriculture, Hon Josephine Connolly, distributed the grants to the registered farmers.

Hon Connolly who delivered brief remarks at the presentation ceremony said her government has made it a priority to provide an enabling environment, to facilitate local investment within the agriculture sector as outlined in the People’s Plan for Empowerment.

She said: “In February last year my government launched the Agriculture Finance Support Programme (Agro-Grant Incentive).

“This Finance Support Programme for farmers is the first programme of this kind in the Turks and Caicos Islands and shows Government’s mandate is to invest heavily in local food production by providing financial support.

“My government has allocated US$250,000 in this first year to promote agriculture development, she added.

The Agriculture Minister told the Weekly News, that the total payout for the Disaster Relief Grants was US$47,000.

She explained that compensation of 10% was paid to each farmer based on an assessment of their damages.

Commenting on the programme, Director of AgricultureWilhelmina Kissoonsingh said: “Farming is an expensive business, cost of farm inputs is high and years of work and establishing a farm can be destroyed in a few minutes by a natural disaster”.

The Director thanked her staff, including Extension Officer Mario

Smith and Farm Manager-Hopeton Panton for their work in assessing damages to farms after the passage of the hurricane.

She added that the department will continue its efforts to develop a comprehensive agriculture incentive programme to assist farmers in developing their farms while urging persons to support