Legislation to formally subsume the functions of the Agricultural Marketing Corporation (AMC) under the Agro-Investment Corporation (AIC) has been approved by the House of Representatives.
The Bill, the Agro-Investment Corporation (Amendment) Act, was passed during the sitting of the Lower House on Tuesday (May 25).
Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon. Floyd Green, who piloted the Bill, explained that the legislation is seeking to put into law âthe arrangements that have been made from 2009 that consolidated the functions of the Agricultural Marketing Corporation into the Agro-Investment Corporationâ.
The Agricultural Marketing Corporation has been without a Board of Management from that time, and since then, its functions have been conducted by the Agro-Investment Corporation.
The wave of farmers market which flooded the country in the first quarter of the country, including innovations such as the Drive-Thru Farmers’ Market at the Agricultural Marketing Corporation (AMC) at 188 Spanish Town Road, has practically dried up and some farmers are hurting.
Agro-Investment Corporation (AIC), which hosted that event in April, got high marks for its packaged deals which saw combinations of fresh vegetables, fruits and produce, priced at $1,000 and $1,500, as excellent deals for consumers, who were spared the hassle of going to the market. The Ministry of Agriculture also hosted a number of farmers’ markets at the playfield at the its Hope Gardens head office, St Andrew, and various association of branch societies of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) also got in the act, all across country.