NASSAU, THE BAHAMAS — The Small Business Development Centre (SBDC) is collaborating with the Ministry of Agriculture, Marine Resources and Family Island Affairs to launch a Sustainable Food Grant which can provide as much as $50,000 in funding to start-ups and existing businesses within the farming and fishing industries.
Earlier this 12 months, it was announced in Parliament that the MOAMRFIA and SBDC would disburse over $1 million in funding through grants to farmers, fishers, processors and people engaged in agribusiness. This programme has also allocated 30 percent of funding to poultry farmers.
Under the grant titled, “Developing Production Systems for National Food Security,” officials expect that entrepreneurs will probably be empowered to rework food systems in The Bahamas, in addition to assist in mitigating food scarcity, food imports, supply chain disruptions, and rising food costs,
An extra goal of the programme is to encourage the participation of ladies and youth within the food production sector.
Minister of Agriculture, Marine Resources and Family Island Affairs Clay Sweeting said that his ministry is looking forward to the grant boosting the food production industry.
“That is an exciting opportunity for existing and budding entrepreneurs to expand their businesses and at the identical time, contribute to the event of food systems throughout our country. We hope that many Bahamians are compelled to use for this grant and assist The Bahamas in obtaining and bolstering food security,” Sweeting said.
“This grant might be life-changing for a lot of Bahamians because it would not only help the economy, but may even assist with the goal of Bahamians feeding themselves. Agribusiness may even be integrated into this program to be certain that we develop not only fishermen and farmers, but business owners as well.”
SBDC interim executive director Samantha Rolle noted, “Once we take into consideration how will we prevent food scarcity and the way will we promote food production, the most effective ways we will do that is to grow our interconnection through strategic partnerships equivalent to this.”
“The Sustainable Food Growth Grant is a holistic initiative to foster value to our economic, social and environmental pillars of sustainability,” she said.
So as to be eligible for the grant, applicants must offer services and products that comply with SBDC’s Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) policy, employ lower than 50 individuals, be 100% Bahamian-owned and supply all required documents.
Those documents include: an executive summary, business license, farmers or fishing business license, voter’s card or utility bill no older than three months, and any two valid types of identification.
After passing the initial screening, applicants must do virtual training in food security, emerging trends, post-harvest management, financial reporting and exporting.
For more stipulations and knowledge concerning the grants, the general public is suggested to contact either the Ministry othe SBDC.
