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Home | Sixty-two artisanal fishers receive vouchers to support rebuilding lost fish pots and traps
Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Hon. Floyd Green, presents a fisher with a voucher to acquire 2 rolls of 1 ½ inch mesh wire to aid in building fish pots and traps during a Voucher Handover Ceremony for fishers on August 16 at the Parottee Seventh-Day Adventist Church in St. Elizabeth.
Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Hon. Floyd Green, presented sixty-two artisanal fishers of Parottee, St. Elizabeth with vouchers from the National Fisheries Authority to acquire 2 rolls of 1 ½ inch mesh wire to aid in building fish pots and traps that were lost during the passage of Hurricane Beryl.
The presentations which have a value of approximately $3.1 million, were made on Friday, August 16 at the Parottee Seventh-Day Adventist Church and fall under the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining’s Hurricane Beryl Fisheries Recovery Programme.
Minister Green outlined during the presentation of vouchers on Friday, that like farmers, fishers have suffered losses not just to their economic enterprise but also to their houses and communities and underscores the Ministry’s intention to provide the necessary support.
“It is important that the ministry that is responsible for you and the minister and the entity like the National Fisheries Authority, does what it can to lessen your burden and that is why we are here,” he shared.
The fisheries minister explained the provision of vouchers for mesh wires is part of a larger effort to rebuild the fisheries sector.
“This is the first step we will also be doing our beach rehabilitation programme where we will be reestablishing gear sheds that have gone down but we are going to be doing it differently, we are going to build them stronger. We are also looking to do storage on a number of our fishing beaches so that when there is no electricity our fishers still can be able to ply their trade. So, this a part of a holistic approach by the ministry to get our fishers back out there,” Green explained.
Supplementing the vouchers was the distribution of 10, 500 pounds of ice to about 120 individuals, the majority of whom are fishers and fisherfolk, in Parottee. The distribution of the ice acts as a cushion for those still grappling with the lack of electricity following the passage of Hurricane Beryl, which is necessary to power refrigerators to store their catch.
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