THE MINISTRY of Agriculture is to spend US$800,000 ($50 million) on a study to determine the feasibility of providing insurance coverage for the island's agricultural sector.
The study forms part of efforts by the Government to find ways to reduce the effects of natural disasters on the sector. Don McGlashan, chief technical director in the Ministry of Agriculture, disclosed that the money is part of a US$1.8 million grant from the Japanese government to conduct a Caribbean catastrophic risk insurance viability study that would allow regional states to purchase insurance coverage. Mr. McGlashan said the other US$1 million has been allocated to the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) to undertake a similar exercise in the various member states. He said the deal with the Japanese was signed on October 25.
ADEQUATE INSURANCE OPTIONS
"The effort of providing adequate insurance options to an agricultural sector which is beset by natural and man-made calamities needs to be addressed and accelerated," Mr. McGlashan said. He was speaking at the launch of the JAS/Excel Healthcare Plus health and life insurance for farmers at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston, last Thursday. The chief technical director said a draft of a policy document was prepared by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) in 2004 to establish a system to minimise the effects of natural disasters on agriculture in the region.
The issue of insurance for the agricultural sector has become a priority for the Government, given the frequency of natural disasters, especially floods and hurricanes, which have done significant damage to the sector in the last 14 months. The island has been affected by hurricanes Charley and Ivan last August and September, a severe drought earlier this year and hurricanes Emily and Dennis in July. The sector suffered nearly a billion dollars in damage over the period.
Both the Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke, and Jamaica Agricultural Society president, Senator Norman Grant, have been imploring private insurance companies to develop insurance policies to cover agricultural crops. At the moment only the coffee and bee-keeping industries have access to insurance.
