Farm Labour Costs to Be Standardized, and Mechanized For Greater Efficiency

Farm labour costs are to be standardized for uniformity in the country, and most farm labours are to be mechanized for greater efficiency, the Ministry of Agriculture revealed. Agriculture Minister Fidel Grant stated many farmers complain that they cannot afford what many labourers charge per day of farm work, and that the government would standardize farm labour wages for uniformity.

According to Grant, some labourers charge as much as $120 per day of work on the farm, and many farmers cannot afford this amount given the economic situation in the country. He said his ministry has contacted the Labour Division and the Office of the Attorney General to have a definite labour wage set which will take into account the capability of the farmer and the labour output of the labourer.

He added that the World Bank through the Emergency Agriculture Livelihoods Climate Resilience Project has provided farming equipment to farm owners to enable them to achieve more on their farms. He said there are augurs, tillers, tractors, and swipers among other farming implements to reduce manual farm labour and mechanize farming activities.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture is also reviewing the operations of the National Abatoir so that the slaughterhouse could be modernized while operational costs could be reduced to facilitate more profits to operators at the facility. Grant stated that there is no hatchery in the country and the country imports chicks and feed for poultry and livestock farmers, a situation that adds to the overheads.

We have noted some challenges in terms of the cost. As it is now in Dominica, we don’t have a hatchery, so we import the chicks, we don’t have a feed plant, so we import the feed. So, what we are looking to see is how the abattoir can get involved in purchasing the chicks and the feed and subsidizing the price to the farmers because that would lead to a reduction in a cost per pound of the poultry and the pork as well.

Fidel Grant: Minister of Agriculture

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