AGRO INVESTMENT TO EASE START-UP BURDEN

The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries is seeking to make the process of starting an agricultural enterprise easier, with the creation of the Agro Investment Corporation, The Cleaner reported on Monday.

Started in October 2009, the corporation is the business facilitation arm of the ministry and is responsible for investment promotion and facilitation, and project and market development. It is a merger of the Agricultural Development Corporation and the Agricultural Support Services Productive Projects Fund Limited.

According to the Corporation's Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Hershell Brown, agro-investors receive help with developing business plans, joint venture agreements, and all the other activities related to getting their business up and running.

'This is being done through a number of mechanisms. The main one that we are focusing on now is developing an asset bank … we seek to determine what use assets can be best put to, then we identify investors to marry them with utilisation of these assets,' said.

Other activities are being carried out, such as the Young Farmers Project, which seeks to identify graduates of tertiary institutions, and provide them with arable lands and assist them with technical support through entities, such as the Rural Agricultural Development Authority.