Another bailout for tomato farmers - Cultivators, fishers get personal insurance coverage
Published:Wednesday | February 10, 2021 | 3:30 AMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer
The Government has announced another bailout for farmers who have seen tomato prices fall from a high of $400 a pound at Christmastime to $30 this month because of a glut.
Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Floyd Green said, during a presentation to Parliament on Tuesday, that $35 million had already been allocated to continue a buy-back programme started last year, under which excess produce is purchased from farmers and stored before being released on to the market. The money will be allocated this quarter and there is more help coming for cultivators.
“We have additionally gotten some support from the FAO to target our eastern parishes and that will be rolled out this quarter,” Green said of the Food and Agriculture Organization.
He was responding to questions from Opposition Spokesman on Agriculture and Water Lothan Cousins, who accused the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), the technical agency that assists farmers, of failing to deliver on its mandate.
“The RADA field officers should have been able to establish a relationship with them (farmers) to let them know that they should not be planting all of their tomatoes at the same time. Proper planning is important and the glut that we are experiencing now is as a result of a lack of proper planning,” Cousins said.
However, the agriculture minister countered by reminding his parliamentary colleague that the farmers themselves would have been tracking developments in the country and seen an uptick in the hospitality sector and were readying for the reopening of some hotels and linkage businesses.
Green used the opportunity to reach out to businesses to partner with the agriculture ministry to avoid a crisis.
“We saw during the onset of COVID-19 some of our private-sector partners start to do home deliveries, going into the field and buying directly from the farmers, transporting directly to homes, transporting to high-demand centres and helping to move excess. I believe now is a good time for those business models to strive,” Green said.
Earlier, Cousins had commended the minister’s pledge to provide health and life insurance for farmers and fishers registered with RADA and the National Fisheries Authority under the Sagicor AgriCare Programme.
Registration starts on March 1. The health plan will include coverage for critical illnesses, personal accidents, and group life insurance. Their dependents will also be eligible for coverage.
Premiums will be as affordable as $217.08 monthly for personal accident coverage of $1 million. A critical illness bundle with protection of $500,000 will cost $284.10 monthly. Fishers and farmers will be charged $965.95 every month for a $1-million group life plan.