The first phase of the Ministry of Agricultures Famer’s Identification programme kicked off on Monday.

The pilot project is being spearheaded by the Agriculture Extension Division within the Ministry and farmers are said to be responding well.

Agriculture Minister EP Chet Greene said the registration process will allow the government to have a better control and management of the developments within the sector and to provide support for farmers where necessary.

“The first thing I’d like to do is commend the officers at the Extension Division who are carrying through this process of farmer registration. It is a long time coming and so what we’re doing here is to the first 100 by way of our pilot project”.

Minister Greene said the programme will ensure the farmer-focused initiatives of the public and private sectors are not exploited by non-farmers.

Minister E P Chet Greene

“We will go forward in batches of 100 starting from this month and hopefully by the end of the summer, by the end of August into September the process will be completed and we will be in a position to say with some authority that there’s X amount of farmers in Antigua and Barbuda,” Greene said.

Chief Extension Officer, Owolabi Elabanjo, also stated, “This will allow us and them to be able to market themselves within the context of their business. Now, they don’t really need now to come to us for letters for identification for whatever …they have something well unique that they can present to any organization in Antigua and Barbuda to any bank, to insurance, to name them, that this is who i am,” Elabanjo said.