Watts Says Agriculture Budget Is ‘Simply a Payroll Budget’ With Little Left for Programmes

Opposition MP Algernon “Serpent” Watts has criticised the 2026 allocation for the Ministry of Agriculture, telling Parliament the budget leaves almost no funding to carry out the programmes the government has announced.

Speaking during the Budget Debate, Watts said that while the ministry received an $8 million increase over last year, the additional funds do not translate into meaningful support for food production.

Referring to the Estimates, he said that “90% of that money… is personal emolument. Salaries, wages, and allowance,” leaving “very little” for the ministry’s planned initiatives.

Watts argued that the high share of recurrent spending undermines the government’s stated commitments to food security and agricultural expansion.

“Agriculture still receives one of the lowest budget shares of all the major ministries,” he said, describing the allocation as “simply a payroll budget, not a food security budget”.

He also challenged statements in the Budget that agriculture would play a central role in reducing the country’s import bill, calling the promises unsupported by the figures presented.

“That is just talk,” Watts said. “You have shown us nothing… absolutely nothing” to demonstrate progress toward those goals.

Watts said the ministry’s operating structure leaves little capacity to fund the programmes the minister listed, asking how the initiatives would be executed with almost no discretionary spending.

He said meaningful investment is needed if Antigua and Barbuda is to make real gains in local food production.

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