By Balford Henry, Senior Staff Reporter
Clarke
AGRICULTURE MINISTER, Roger Clarke, has intervened in the controversy surrounding the disbursement of a $150 million loan from the Ministry of Finance and Planning to sugar cane farmers.
He met with representatives of the All-Island Jamaica Cane Farmers Association's (AIJCFA) last week and agreed to hold talks with the PC Banks and the Sugar Industry Authority (SIA). However, the Minister is still maintaining that the disbursements would be best done through the PC Banks.
Dr. Omar Davies, Minister of Finance and Planning, announced the allocation of the loan at the AIJCFA's annual general meeting last December. The farmers had expected that disbursements would have begun immediately in order to finance a programme of early cane replanting in December that would maximise sucrose content. But, disbursements have not yet begun and the AIJCFA says that this delay has set back the crucial replanting programme by at least three months.
Objection to the loan being disbursed through the PC Banks were raised by the AIJCFA president Abijah Buchanan. He said that the PC Banks are incapable of making the disbursements expeditiously.
According to him, PC Banks had neither the infrastructure nor the track record to guarantee disbursements on time and farmers had to wait up to seven or eight months for the loans.
The AIJCFA has instead suggested that the loans be disbursed through the sugar companies. But, the sugar companies do not want to be saddled with the disbursement of loans to cane farmers.
Chris Bovell, chairman of the Sugar Manufacturing Corporation of Jamaica (SMCJ), confirmed that the sugar companies were not willing to take responsibility for the disbursement of the funds.
"We will collect the repayments on behalf of the banks, but we are not into the disbursement. We have agreed on a methodology of disbursement, parish by parish and factory by factory, but we think that the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) is better suited to the large disbursements and the PC Banks for the smaller loans," he said.
He said that the factories were not interested in getting into the business of lending, as they did not have the staff nor the expertise to handle it. But, would continue to collect the repayments to the PC Banks and the DBJ.
A committee comprising representatives of the AIJCFA, DBJ, Sugar Industry and Jamaica Cane Products Limited has been appointed to look into the expeditious distribution of the loans and the Minister will meet with the cane farmers again on March 26.
