Page 7 - Agric Info Mag 2018 - 01

and that the resources be disbursed in a
timely manner for the benefit of farm-
ers, fishers and the sector as a whole.

Also addressing the launch were Ray-
mond Ryan, Permanent Secretary and
Colville King, Agricultural Diversifi-
cation Officer and Interim Project
Manager. Permanent Secretary Ryan
outlined the expected benefits of the
project and highlighted the mechanism
for the transparent selection of com-
petitive business plans. Mr. King pro-
vided a brief background to the genesis A section of the crowd at the opening Ceremony
of the project. He noted that the pro-
ject followed a regional study which sought
to link farmers, fishers and Agro-
processors with markets in the tourism sec-
tor. He added that the study found that
farmers were missing significant marketing
opportunities because farmers by them-
selves were too small to sustain the avail-
able markets. The study also found the co-
ordination of marketing was very ineffi-
cient hence quality and quantity of agricul-
tural produce and fisheries products did not
meet market requirements. Mr. King indi-
cated that if marketing was organized mar-
keting, we would better match demand
with supply.

Upon the submission of a joint business
plan, mutual benefits will be accorded to
producers and marketers.

The ideal is to establish productive alli-
ances engaging a number of stakeholders in
a public-private partnership with the ulti-
mate objective to enhance access to mar-
kets and sales for competitively selected
farmers and fishers as well as their allied
aggregators and agro-processors.

The project is financed through a World
Bank International Development Associa-
tion loan of US$4.3 million.