The Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS) has become a farming lender, launching a $2 million loan scheme aimed at supporting farmers’ production needs, following through on a government promise made last year.
BAS Chief Executive Officer James Paul announced on Wednesday that the organisation had recently received the promised funds from the Mottley administration. The scheme, first revealed by the prime minister during the March 2023 Budgetary Proposals, is designed as a revolving fund to provide small loans to livestock farmers.
The initiative comes in response to widespread concerns from the farming community about rising costs across all aspects of their operations. Farmers had complained about increases in feed prices, utilities, fuel, and other expenses due to market pressures.
Paul revealed that eight farmers had already applied for loans, with the BAS currently reviewing the applications. He emphasised the organisation’s stringent approach to loan repayment, stating: “We are holding a zero tolerance attitude towards people who do not intend to pay back their loans so others can benefit.”
Addressing past issues with similar schemes, Paul said: “In the past, we had a situation where funds were placed by the government with whatever organisation and farmers in some cases, saw it as a slush fund in which they did not have to pay back. That is not the intention in this particular instance.”
The CEO outlined the scheme’s focus on supporting existing operations looking to expand or improve efficiency.
“What is intended is that if a farmer has an existing operation and he wants to amplify it, he wants to improve it, he wants to increase, and the prime minister has made it very clear, in that it is being applied for instance to help in terms of water harvesting,” Paul explained.
He added that the loans could be used for improving water harvesting capabilities on livestock farms and implementing new technologies to enhance farm efficiency. Paul stressed that farmers would need to provide verifiable evidence of their intended use of the funds, with the loans being treated as standard financial agreements.
The BAS chief highlighted the broader implications of the scheme’s success, warning that failure to repay loans would not only impact other farmers needing assistance but could also have negative consequences for national agricultural production.
“If they don’t pay back those loans, it means the other farmers who want genuine assistance and who would like to expand their operations, will suffer as a result of that,” Paul cautioned. “Not only will they suffer but the country as a whole will suffer because if we cannot have improved farming operations that are actually increasing their productivity, it means then that we will be failing in our objectives of trying to increase overall agricultural production.”
(SZB)
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