Coming on top of setbacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic, heavy rain in recent weeks has prevented 60 aquaculture farmers from harvesting their production.
This was disclosed on Tuesday by Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha at the National Fisherfolks Day, 2021.
A press release from the Ministry of Agriculture said that the event was held at the Georgetown Cricket Club and aimed to recognise contributions by fishermen over the years. According to Mustapha, “Over the years the Minis-try of Agriculture has been working to resolve many of the issues faced by the fishing industry. Issues like not having safety nets for fisherfolk, financing bodies being reluctant to offer insurance coverage to certain classes of vessels, cases where no serious attempts have been made to have fisherfolks registered with the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), among other things are high on our agenda. These issues have been discussed and we hope to soon have them addressed in the interest of all parties involved.”