Government Senator Norman Grant has proposed the creation of a national crop insurance scheme/disaster relief fund that would be funded from the Consolidated Fund.

"There is a need to have a structural mechanism to provide the agricultural sector with a rapid response where there is a disaster of any kind. The sector is too vital to the development of the country for us not to have this addressed post hasted," he said in the Senate last week Friday.

Senator Grant was responding to a private member's motion brought by Opposition Senator Anthony Johnson, calling on the Government to promptly address the plight of coffee farmers whose crops were destroyed during Hurricane Ivan in 2004. He said the fund should be a contributory scheme. "It should have contribution also coming from the respective sub sectors, who wish to be covered by the scheme," he added.

He further suggested that the scheme should be established as a statutory body, in the same way as the National Insurance Scheme and that international aid agencies could be approached to provide an amount that represented approximately 10 years' budgetary support.

Senator Johnson, in his motion, raised concern that many farmers were not benefiting from the $85 million advanced by government as interim payment for their coffee holding until the legal battle between the liquidators of the defunct Dyoll Insurance Company and the trustees of the farmers insurance fund is resolved.

The Opposition spokesman on agriculture called for prompt payment to be made to the farmers and that the Government provide a full report on the insurance policies.