Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Suggestion to PM Barrow from Canada re sugar cane farmers.

Thoughts from Canada
Re: Sugar Cane Industry

I can understand your frustration over government monies wasted on unprofitable operations like many of the sugar cane farms.

Here is a question: Is it possible to use the money to help the farmers improve?

One could stipulate that help is only available for those farms who are willing to help themselves.
My guess is that a lack of capital is one of the obstacles cane farmers face if they want to better their production.
Instead of throwing the money away without any long term effect, the government could offer very low interest loans to farmers who are using the loans for improvements, like irrigation systems to increase production or methods to improve quality.

This is called an incentive program. Many countries do that with all aspects of the economy.
A good example is Canada which has been offering federal grants to people who make their homes run more energy efficient by installing high efficiency appliances and equipment. There are also incentive programs to produce "green" energy like solar or wind.
In the farming industry various governments use incentive programs to get farmers to grow the kinds of crops they think they need (just think of the corn subsidies of late).

Again - my 2 cents worth.....

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