Dr. Dunstan Campbell.

Increasingly, the cost of natural disasters on the agricultural sector in Jamaica and the region is becoming more burdensome. In a bid to lessen the impact, efforts are now underway to develop a regional agricultural insurance scheme to assist with the quick rehabilitation of the sector.

Dr. Dunstan Campbell, the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) representative in Jamaica, said an insurance facility was being designed in the Bahamas, which would be later replicated across the Caribbean to assist small farmers and fishers in recovering from the effects of natural disasters.

"The system being developed by FAO in the Bahamas is called the Coupon Insurance System, that uses the same principles of indexing and parametric techniques to come up with premiums and payouts as the World Bank's Caribbean Catastrophe Risk and Insurance facility," Dr. Campbell explained. He said this insurance was designed specifically for small farmers and fishers who would not be qualified for assistance under the World Bank's Caribbean Catastrophe Risk and Insurance facility, which caters to macroeconomic sectors such as tourism and manufacturing.

One of the several banana farms in St. Thomas destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004. - Ian Allen /Staff Photographer

The FAO Jamaica representative was speaking at a workshop on improving agricultural preparedness in Caribbean countries highly prone to hydro-meteorological disasters (hurricanes, floods, droughts) at the Hotel Four Seasons in Kingston last Tuesday. The workshop was designed to train agricultural stakeholders in the various Caribbean countries how to effectively manage and execute programmes to lessen the effects of natural disasters on the agricultural sector.

Figures from the World Bank indicate that natural disasters cost the Caribbean and Latin America between US$700 million and $3.3 billion from 1970 to 1999. And based on forecasts by weather experts, natural disasters in the region are becoming more frequent.

Dr. Campbell emphasised that there was a need for both physical and social systems to mitigate against the devastating effects of natural disasters on agriculture in the region. At the same time, however, he said "today in the Caribbean the issue of preparedness for natural disasters was not being taken lightly."

Agriculture and Lands Minister, Roger Clarke, who officially opened the workshop, underscored the importance of establishing an appropriate insurance scheme for the agricultural sector, pointing to the devastation caused by Hurricane Ivan in 2004, which did more than $6 billion in damage.

Albert Shand, executive director of the Rural Agricultural Development Authority, noted that no proper plans exist to deal with natural disasters as there was a tendency to only recognise the impact just before the hurricane or the rainy season. He also noted that farmers too were not interested in mitigating strategies as they were more keen on relief efforts.

Mr. Clarke urged farmers to utilise environmentally safe techniques in farming as this was important in mitigating against the impact of natural disasters on the sector.