PUTRAJAYA: The government will go ahead with plans for a Crop Insurance Scheme in order to aid farmers affected by natural disasters.
Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Salahuddin Ayub said the scheme would likely be made available by the end of the month.
He said the ministry was currently in the midst of finalising the mechanism involved.
“At present, we need to look at the mechanism but we are also holding discussions with Agrobank Bhd and other insurers. We want, when natural disasters occur, to have an insurance scheme so that the load of our farmers is lightened.
“The ministry’s vision is to help all those in the agriculture sector, should they need it. (Natural disasters) may occur maybe only once a year, but this scheme will mean a lot to those who receive it,” he told reporters after his ministry’s Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration.
The scheme was first proposed by Salahuddin’s predecessor, Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek, who had said it would be available by 2017.
However, insurance companies were reportedly reluctant to offer such policies as they feared that if many farmers took up these policies and a disaster were to occur, they would have to pay out huge sums.
On another matter, Salahuddin said the Cabinet had decided that his ministry would be among several ministries included in Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s official visit to China next month.
This, he said, was to enable them to take part in discussions about the palm oil industry.
Salahuddin said the ministry would also discuss the best method to export products, especially fruits such as durian, mangosteen and jackfruit, and other products such as birds' nest, to China.
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