Regional Seminar on Agricultural and Fisheries Insurance by Brent Simon
Mr. Walter Christopher, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, represented the Minister and attended the plenary meeting of the Regional Seminar on Agricultural and Fisheries Insurance which took place at the Hotel Accra, Barbados, from the 4th-6th September 2024.
He joined Mr. Steve Archibald/Senior Fisheries Officer and Mr. Joel Matthew/District Officer within the Extension Division in the Ministry of Agriculture as well as regional representatives from the various ministries of Agriculture, the farmers sector in Barbados, and experts from the European Union.
The overall objectives of the seminar being to enhance the knowledge of the OECS Commission and OECS countries about international experience on Agricultural Insurance, different agricultural insurance options, their scopes, financing, challenges and innovations. Additionally, the seminar shared the key aspects involved in the consideration of setting up or strengthening an Agricultural Insurance System.
With the island states of the Caribbean being severely affected by the impacts of Climate Change within the last decade, increased floodings, droughts, volcanic eruptions have been experienced. Unfortunately, the frequency and intensity of extreme weather activities and natural disasters pose serious risk to the agricultural sector and are expected to further increase.
Much was learned about national and multi national policy trends from the sharing of international experiences from different countries on agricultural insurance design and implementation, and the opportunity for the exchange of best practices and networking was embraced wholeheartedly.
Keeping in line with the Sustainable Development Goal 2 “Zero Hunger” to double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, the development of effective, financially sustainable, and non-marketing distorting risk management systems which fall in accordance with the criteria set out by the WTO’s “green box” is necessary.
Mr. Steve Archibald indicated that in his opinion Antigua has definitely benefitted from being at the table with such a diverse group of attendees stating that, “It gives us an inside track on the issues surrounding agricultural and fisheries insurance in our region and an opportunity to discuss what does and does not work in the context of our particular situation as we are constantly updating and adapting as we grow”, explained Mr. Archibald.
He mentioned that the Austrian model of insurance stood out as it has been effectively adopted since !955 and has a proven track record while offering a 51/49 partnership between the insurance company and the consumer. However, in the Austrian example there is a mandatory data submission clause. He also pointed out that in the Jamaican Coconut Industry the presence of WINCROP has helped the stakeholders recover from wind damage due to extreme weather conditions such as storms and hurricanes and in our case here in Antigua the Caribbean Catastrophic Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) has also fulfilled its obligations after the island has been impacted by various extreme weather events.
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