The Minister of Public Works and Minister of State for Youth Affairs Ali Al-Mousa said Kuwaiti farmers deserve the state’s financial and moral support to achieve food security, now and in the future, saying he is one of them, “and I need someone to direct and guide me to make the joint and clear effort,” and added he will follow up on the efforts of farmers in all agricultural areas to develop the agricultural wealth in order to achieve food security, which receives the attention of the senior political leadership and the Kuwaiti people.
This came during Al-Mousa’s visit, last Friday, to the farm of the former head of the Kuwaiti Farmers’ Union, Abdullah Al-Damak, in Wafra, in the presence of the union’s president, Muhammad Al-Otaibi, his deputy Hussein bin Samil, the union’s secretary Abdullah Al-Dahoum, and the union’s treasurer Jaber Marzouq Al-Azmi, reports Al-Rai daily.
Al-Mousa said in front of the farmers, “The production of Kuwaiti farms is diverse and characterized by quality and freshness, which requires government support in cash and in-kind, encouraging the demand for it and giving it preference over other imported production by all consumers in all local markets, quickly in the best way, and for the treated water to reach all Wafra and Abdali farms, and to improve its delivery methods.”
He said the support is not all in cash, as there are many forms of support. There is support represented in the provision of mechanisms, water and electricity, good harvest, treatment of waste, and the establishment of refrigerated warehouses, and there is the opening of marketing outlets for Kuwaiti products of high quality and remunerative support.
He pointed out that in the very near future, “I will invite the owners of productive farms to a meeting, to form a team from among them and we will cooperate and coordinate with them the agricultural issues” and will remain loyal to the issue of food security.
And Al-Mousa concluded: “With cooperation, unity in word and deed, and avoiding disagreements among the farmers themselves, we can secure the rights of the productive farmers. I am from you and will support you. I need someone to direct and guide me so that the effort is joint and clear. I am part of a package that strives, to deliver a true message to the Council of Ministers, and take sound and executable decisions, in the hope of achieving further development in the agricultural field in all its sectors, plant, animal, poultry, and fish.”
In turn, the head of the union, Muhammad Al-Otaibi, said that “Kuwaiti farmers have simple problems that need decision-making and practical minister, such as Minister Ali Al-Mousa, perhaps the most prominent of which is the problem of high prices of freshwater.
He considered that protecting the national product from the unequal competition of the importer is necessary for the continuation of agricultural activity in Kuwait and that without the state’s protection of the national product, the Kuwaiti farmer will not profit, and if the farmer does not profit from his hard work which he works for in remote northern and southern border areas, the state will lose all this stressing that “the Kuwaiti farmer has succeeded in producing many fruits and all kinds of vegetables and is ready to achieve more if he receives financial reward and government support.”
