Minister Reddy: Farmers to join trust account
Farmers will join a trust account to help prepare for next crop.
This is one of the initiatives highlighted by the Minister for Agriculture, Mahendra Reddy during a press conference on the success of recently harvested potatoes at Navai Agriculture Station in Nadarivatu on Saturday.
Farmers success
Mr Reddy said the successful harvest was also a milestone achievement for the ministry and was an opportunity for the Ministry to highlight some issues such as farmers to join trust account.
Agricultural market
“Farmers opting to join trust account (15 per cent deduction) to assist them in preparing for the next crop cycle,” he said.
“They have to be a registered farmer through the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) and the farmers would be given national farmers ID card that is very similar to license card or FNPF card. This is one of my initiatives that was launched in late at Marinitawa Ba.”
He said the Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA) would buy the produce for the farmer and would only pay 85 per cent of the total proceeds from the sales. The balance 15 per cent from the proceeds would be placed in a trust account maintained by AMA and upon agreement, the farmers/producers can always increase their reinvestment contribution.
Re-investment fund
“The farmers can access their 15 per cent (contribution) anytime for the purpose of reinvesting in their farm. The re-investment fund can be used for land preparation, procurement of Agro-inputs and procurement of fixed assets for farm operations. The reinvestment fund will not be paid directly to the farmers but to the vendors of the activities outlined earlier. AMA will maintain individual account of each farmer and account details can be accessed at any point in time,” added Mr Reddy. Furthermore, he said that Marketdriven production as AMA would be buying all the harvest from the farm gate.