At a recently held town hall meeting on the island of Andros residents questioned government officials about their applications for agricultural grants.
Chavara Roker Eneas of Chickcharney Farms spoke the meeting. She said, “as an entrepreneur running two farms, one in North Andros, one of the only strawberry farms in our country, and the other one in Nassau. I must tell you it is not easy as an entrepreneur to not have agricultural assistance from the government. Especially when you ask for grants that will help to further your business and will help to employ Bahamians and of course, provide food for Bahamians. So please sir, if you can kindly look into those persons that you know are in agriculture that are actually working, that are actually putting the money to good use. Please have a second look at those applications.”
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Public Service, the Hon. Fred Mitchell responded to Roker Eneas saying, “the number of demands for applications exceeded the money that was available, so there was a shortfall.”
