With hurricane season set to start on June 1, the St Lucia Ministry of Agriculture is taking proactive steps to guard the island’s weak farmers by way of a brand new insurance coverage programme particularly designed for banana and plantain growers.
Agriculture Minister Alfred Prospere introduced the upcoming launch of the scheme, which is aimed toward lowering farmers’ reliance on authorities compensation following pure disasters. Developed in partnership with Grace Kennedy, the insurance coverage initiative has already secured EC$1 million on this 12 months’s nationwide funds and can be rolled out within the coming weeks.
“That is the time of the 12 months our farmers are most weak,” Prospere mentioned, highlighting the rising challenges posed by local weather change. “Yearly, one would anticipate that there could be some pure catastrophe, whether or not it’s excessive rainfall, wind, hurricane… [or] tropical storm.”
Whereas the programme initially targets banana and plantain farmers, it marks the primary agricultural insurance coverage initiative in St Lucia because the Eighties and is predicted to broaden to cowl vegetable farmers, poultry producers, livestock farmers, fishers, and agro-processors.
Prospere emphasised that the insurance coverage will assist farmers safeguard their investments: “If my plantation, if my funding is affected or impacted because of a pure catastrophe, I would not have to solely rely on the federal government for compensation.”
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Trying forward, the ministry envisions a mannequin the place farmers contribute to the programme, probably by way of deductions tied to gross sales by way of native patrons such because the Advertising Board, Massy Shops, or the hospitality sector.
Because the island braces for what meteorologists predict to be an above-average hurricane season, additional particulars in regards to the insurance coverage rollout are anticipated quickly.
