Farmers in Barbados should soon have more protection when the Praedial Larceny Bill is passed in Parliament.

This is according to Minister of Agriculture, Food, Fisheries and Water Resource Management, Dr. David Estwick, who was speaking during the opening of the National Agricultural Conference 2015 on Monday at the Savannah Hotel.

Dr. Estwick said that the current legislation did not offer famers much protection as it related to praedial larceny, as there was no legal and effective way to trace stolen produce.??

With the new legislation, he explained, all persons involved in agriculture will now have to present some form of receipt when selling products.?????Those that act as farmers or as the primary producers would have a particular type of receipt and a receipt book format that would be on hand from the Ministry.

“In addition, those who are at the level of wholesalers and those who will be retailing will also have some type of receipt book structure. Where a farmer himself can execute retailing, then you have to also take that into consideration,??? the Agriculture Minister stated.

Dr. Estwick said plans were also in place to have agricultural inspectors work along with the police to strengthen the enforcement of the law and protect the farmers.??He added that when the legislation was passed, all the stakeholders would have to cooperate to ensure that the new polices were successful.

aisha.reid@barbados.gov.bb

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