With fisher folk and other workers in the fisheries sector heavy hit by the coronavirus pandemic, the Government is making moves it hopes will help replace lost gear while getting them productive and back to the sea.

To get this done, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Floyd Green revealed yesterday (November 3) that the Goverment has allocated $120 million in incentives for fishers and fish farmers.

The funds will in part go toward providing $67 million worth of grants in the form of vouchers to around 4,740 fishers across 137 fishing communities.

“Each fisher will be provided a voucher valued at $15,000 to be used to purchase fish mesh wire or equivalent fishing gear,” Green said in a statement to the House of Representatives as it sat at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston.

Approximately $30 million of the grant will be distributed through members of parliament (MP) to fishing communities in their constituencies. The other $37 million will be distributed through the National Fisheries Authority (NFA) under the Fisheries Incentive Programme, which will similarly distribute vouchers valuing $15,000 to registered fish farmers, through the NFA offices islandwide.

Of the funds provided through parliamentarians, each will be allocated a minimum of $510,000 up to $1.5 million, depending on the number of registered fishers in their constituency.

Green, who noted that the fisheries sector could lose up to US$23.1 million during 2020, due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, said the vouchers will allow fishers to redeem fishing gear or material only from participating entities and are, therefore, not redeemable for cash.

He also said about 260 fishers from St. Catherine and St. Mary fishing beaches, who were subject to lockdowns in April and May, respectively, and were unable to go to sea, will receive grants in the form of vouchers with a total value of $8 million.

“This is to allow them to recoup the loss that they suffered by damage to their fishing equipment that were at sea during the period and they were unable to attend to. These include primarily trap fishermen and some net and line fishers,” Green said.

Fish farmers in the aquaculture production areas, who had challenges in procuring feed and fish fingerlings, will receive grants in the form of vouchers with a total value of $20 million.

“Approximately 72 farmers will benefit from this.”

Also, the ornamental fish-producing subsector will receive just over $1 million to facilitate the provision of brine shrimp as feed to breeders as well as fish feed and support for infrastructure development.

Green said the Government is in the process of procuring cold-storage containers to be placed on strategic fishing beaches islandwide to enhance value chain support.

“We have earmarked $20 million for this programme,” he said.

JIS