Agri Society: Expand incentives, no more ‘talk shop’

Aranguez farmer Malcolm Joseph waters his tomato crop with Bio-Forge to prevent the spread of pests. FILE PHOTO -

Agriculture Society president Darryl Rampersad is hoping the measures outlined for the sector in the 2025/2026 budget on October 13 come to fruition.

Rampersad told Newsday that the association was no stranger to government promises which never materialised.

"What we are looking at from the perspective of agriculture is we want to see that it's no longer a talk shop. We want to see that agriculture is on the front-line burner; we want to see things happening within the agriculture sector as well.

"Some of the items that are mentioned, which include removal of VAT on some of these items, these were already in existence before and what we would need is the expansion of the incentive programme."

He said he hopes some of the association's suggestions, such as helping to eliminate the giant African snails, are implemented.

Presenting the $59.232 billion expenditure budget on October 13, Minister of Finance Davendranath Tancoo said the agriculture sector would receive $1.13 billion, a marginal decrease from its $1.184 billion allocation for fiscal 2024/2025.

The Minister of Finance accused the previous administration of failing to keep their promise to make the agriculture sector tax-free. He proposed to remove value-added tax (VAT) from all machinery and equipment intended explicitly for agricultural use; to remove VAT from all components used explicitly in hydroponic farming and greenhouse farming; to review the VAT Act to provide a comprehensive classification for zero-rated preparations and chemicals to ensure farmers have access to a full range of cost-effective inputs for cultivation and animal health; and remove Customs Duty from feed used for poultry, cattles and pigs effective January 1, 2026.

Additionally, he said some locally grown produce would qualify for VAT exemptions as the government moves to remove the tax on basic food items from October 17.

Hoping to align with Caricom's "25 by 2025" goal by 2030, Tancoo said several measures would be implemented. The goal is to reduce food imports by 25 per cent by 2030.

These include a three-year priority commodities programme for 15 high-demand products, with an annual focus on three crops and one livestock category, climate-resilient farming and crop insurance, greenhouse incentives, and water-harvesting systems, the integration of agriculture into schools and youth entrepreneurship through the Youth Agricultural Fund and export growth in fine-flavour cocoa, Moruga pepper, and aquaculture, doubling agro-exports by 2028.

He said $793.7 million will be invested in infrastructure, irrigation, fisheries, land development, and agri-tech initiatives.

Using smart agriculture and AI farming to increase efficiency and self-sufficiency, Tancoo said the government was targeting $1 billion in exports in the next fiscal year.