Governor General Dame Sandra Mason (right) presentimg a copy of the Throne Speech to Speaker of the House, His Honour Arthur Holder.
Governor General Dame Sandra Mason has revealed that legislation for medicinal cannabis is already in place and the regulations will soon be finished.
Speaking during the recent Opening of the Second Session of the Parliament of Barbados, Dame Sandra stated that this industry has the potential to be lucrative and stressed that all foreign investments must have local participation.
She stated that access to licences and land for farming will be given to ordinary Barbadians who have an interest in this area of farming, crop cultivation, transportation or processing.
Dame Sandra highlighted that this played a role in Government’s plan to work on improving food security and farming in Barbados.
However, Government’s plans did not stop there as she revealed that at Lears, St. Michael, there was a significant acreage of private sector lands that will be made available to the public for use as allotments on which they can engage in farming, and expected one hundred Barbadians to benefit from this programme.
In an attempt to reduce the current imports of $14 million in lamb, the Governor General highlighted that local butchers will be trained to produce specialty cuts for the hospitality sector without damaging the hides in order to develop a Black Belly leather industry.
“Increasing the production of local vegetables is also planned and anticipated to save $25 million in the import costs. Cleared land at Bath, St John has already gone to the Rastafarian community ICAR for farming, more specifically for the growth and production of herbs, aloes, roots and tubers such as sweet potatoes, cassava and yams,” she said.
“And active support is being given to a 100 acre private sector pineapple farm at Turners Hall that is also going to package and can tertiary pineapple products. While at Frizers, plantains and bananas are being grown and are on target to reduce imports of bananas by almost 50 per cent.”
Acknowledging that praedial larceny was still a significant problem affecting legitimate farmers and causing tremendous losses, Dame Sandra revealed that Cabinet has agreed to repeal the Act of 2017 and replace it with more effective legislation that will include drone technology for surveillance, as well as for the application of pesticides and water.
She added that block chain technology will be introduced for seed to chain tracking and that The Royal Barbados Police Force has been asked to consider the establishment of a unit to deal with praedial larceny.
