Agriculture Minister Welcomes Insurance for Farmers

  • Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon. Floyd Green, has welcomed the insurance product, GraceKennedy (GK) Weather Protect, which will provide coverage for farmers and fisher-folk impacted by adverse weather events. The policy is being provided through GK Insurance and will protect the businesses of farmers and fishermen against heavy rain, wind and drought. 
  • Green, who was speaking at the virtual launch of the insurance scheme on Tuesday (July 20), said this new product “could not have come at a better time”, given the fact that the hurricane season has begun. He pointed out that the impact of severe weather conditions has been a major challenge for the agricultural sector, noting that between 2004 and 2017, the sector suffered $196Bn in losses from weather-related events. 
  • In October last year, there was a significant period of sustained rains that caused more than $2.50Bn in damage to crops across Jamaica, and affected 14,000 farmers. “They (farmers) had to depend on the Government to find the resources to give them to start their agricultural enterprise again. While we were able to pull together over $600 million to get our farmers up and running, one of the realities is that a lot of the farmers had to wait for significant periods to get that support from the Government… [due to several factors],” he said. 
  • This is where the GK Weather Protect product could better serve farmers and fishers by providing an accessible, affordable and flexible insurance product that offers a quick payout. Jamaica now has from the private sector “a truly affordable and accessible crop insurance scheme that will help to protect our farmers from the realities that they face because of our weather patterns”.

(Source: JIS)