Evidence of the continual strengthening of links between the agricultural and agro-processing sectors is evidenced in the fact that, increasingly and as their financial fortunes become more favourable, agro-processors are beginning to examine the prospects of investing in modest agricultural plots, sufficient to cultivate crops that are tied to their agro-processing pursuits and perhaps to utilise whatever remains for their own purposes.
Earlier this month, seven of eleven agro-processors to whom this newspaper spoke, revealed that the high cost of acquiring raw material (farm products) for their manufacturing pursuits had triggered a decision to venture into small-scale agriculture. Some of the crops being contemplated by the agro-processors are sweet potatoes, limes, eddoes, ginger and carambola. The idea, they all say, is to acquire modest parcels of land on which to cultivate their chosen crops all of which, after cultivation, will be moved to factories (some of these are makeshift factories) for processing.
