In excess of 200 acres allocated to GB farmers with more to come
Over 200 farmers and fishermen have accessed more than $5 million in targeted funding through SBDC
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The government is moving “aggressively” on its land liberalization plan, according to Agriculture and Marine Resources Minister Michael Pintard, who noted approval has been granted for in excess of 200 acres to be allocated to farmers on Grand Bahama.
Pintard, while addressing the Grand Bahama Business Outlook on Friday, stated: “We have aggressively moved on land liberalization. The prime minister mandated that we conduct a land audit because much of the available land in the country was being used for things other than the specified purpose, which was to develop agriculture in the country.
“We have been engaged in that exercise but we recognized that because time is of the essence, we have to work on two tracks simultaneously.”
Pintard added: “We have began the land liberalization policy. In the case of Grand Bahama, we have just over the last several weeks signed the paper for in excess of 200 acres to be allocated to a number of the small farmers and larger parcels will be made available to the large seasoned farmers.
“We fully expect there will be several hundred acres in very short order available to farmers. The caveat is that they must follow the timelines they have committed to in their application in order to take advantage of the additional acreage available to them.”
Pintard also noted that over 200 farmers and fishermen have been able to access some $5 million in targeted funding through the Small Business Development Centre (SBDC), adding that there had been some $29 million in funding requests.
Pintard said: “I have fought for additional funding and I am happy to have formed a solid partnership with the SBDC. Their team that has been doing a wonderful job vetting various proposals to determine the viability of projects in a cross section of areas, but in particular for farming and fishing.
“This has made a world of a difference. There was $5 million available and we would have had somewhere in the vicinity of $29 million of application requests. Clearly the demand is there.”
There were some 213 recipients of the Fishing & Farming Programme approved for a total of $5,029,586.99 in funding.
