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-as party stands behind Noel HolderIn the wake of reports that Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder, is taking heat from the Alliance forMinister of Agriculture, Noel HolderChange’s (AFC) leadership over his handling of the agriculture portfolio, party officials are denying that they are discontented or that the party is planning to intervene in the running of the sector.Holder, the husband of the late AFC co-founder Sheila Holder, was reported in sections of the media to have been a major subject at the party’s retreat, last weekend. In the report, it was stated that the AFC leadership was not pleased with the direction in which the Agriculture sector is heading and may be getting ready to push for changes.The report had also gone on to state that “some members in the AFC leadership now believe that Minister Holder may need some assistance in running the industry.”Noting that the coalition has been facing criticism over the decision to close the Wales sugar estate at the end of the year, the report had stated that Minister Holder was yet to meet with the sugar workers more than four months after the announcement was made.“The Minister has been heavily criticized for taking a “laid back” approach to the issue.  Sugar workers have protested the move although many of them will have their jobs secured at other sugar estates,” the report had stated.It was also reported that Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, would make a recommendation for another Minister to be added to the Agriculture portfolio.Contacted on Tuesday, however, Minister of Public Infrastructure and AFC General Secretary David Patterson denied these reports. He noted that the general thrust of the AFC retreat had been party matters.Director of Public Information and AFC member Imran Khan also responded to the reports through a press release. He made it clear that no discussion regarding adding a junior Minister to the Agriculture portfolio took place.“With regard to a media report (about the) Minister of Agriculture, the AFC clarifies that no discussion regarding a junior Minister of Agriculture took place at its leadership retreat and no such decision was taken.”He went on to specifically add that no decision was taken for the party leader or any other AFC cabinet member to take any issue of a new appointment in the Ministry of Agriculture either to Cabinet or to President David Granger. He did, however, acknowledge that there were specific criticisms at the retreat about the handling of the Wales Estate closure.“At the retreat there were criticisms raised about how the Wales Estate planned closure announcement was handled and the party Vice Chairman, Moses Nagamootoo advised that the government should meet with and dialogue with the sugar workers.”It is understood that Minister Holder, who did not attend the retreat, is in Costa Rica on Government business. He is expected to hold discussions on agriculture development between the two countries.There will also be discussions on the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) country strategy for 2014-2018,Cheap NFL Jerseys, among other topics.THE AGRICULTURE SECTORFor 2015 it had been reported that sugar production grew by 6.9 percent to 231,145 metric tonnes though this level of production was still below the average achieved in the previous decade.Recorded output for the rice industry was pegged at 687,784 tonnes, an increase of 8.3 percent last year. While production increased, it was not a good year for rice, market wise, as the lucrative Venezuelan market, which accounted for 37.5 percent of the volume of rice exported in 2014, was lost.The livestock sub-sector was reported to have grown by 5.8 percent, while the ‘other crops’ sub-sector grew by 2 percent.  However, negative growth was returned by the fisheries sub-sector, 7.2 percent; and forestry, 16.2 percent.The opposition party has however been heavily critical of how the Ministry of Agriculture has been administering the sector, particularly, the rice industry.