- Agriculture Minister attributes the reduction to Government's intervention
Over the past months, a steady increase in the price of fruits and vegetables was seen which of course raised concerns among citizens.
However, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha on Wednesday at the sidelines of an event revealed that there has been a reduction in these prices.
He said these reductions can be attributed to the interventions made at the level of the Government.
“A survey was done and we have seen the prices of vegetables and fruits are going down. This is as a result of the intervention that we have made by the Ministry of Agriculture in giving people seeds in facilitating them to do best practices.”
The increased prices were attributed to floods which resulted in major losses for cash crop farmers and as a form of assistance farmers received cash grants from the Government.
He also posited that they are preparing for such a scenario in the future.
“We have done a lot of canals and drainage works over the last year because we encounter severe flooding and we are trying to mitigate flooding as quickly as possible so that the farmers can have proper facilities,” he told reporters at the sidelines of an event on Wednesday.
Furthermore, he assured, that the Government is working to strengthen this key sector. He pointed out that over the past 18 months keen interest has been shown in the Agriculture sector as compared to before.
This he related has resulted in the sector becoming more diversified.
This simply means that interest is being seen when it comes to offering a wider variety of products and services within the sector. He notes that this diversification is crucial, considering the effects that climate change has posed to the sector over the past years.
A sum of $5b was allocated in budget 2022 to cushion the effects of the cost of living.
