This report forms part of the technical assistance provided by the World Bank under the Non-lending Technical Assistance Program for the Caribbean “Market Based Agriculture Risk Management in the Caribbean”. The program is largely financed by the European Union AAACP Initiative and contributions from the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) and the World Bank. The findings and analysis in this report are largely based on the work commissioned to a consulting firm with inputs provided by consultants and staff from the Government of Jamaica, the private sector of Jamaica, the World Bank, and participants of a consultation workshop held in Kingston, Jamaica in May 2009.
This document provides technical inputs for designing a national strategy for addressing the financial weather risks facing the agricultural sector of Jamaica. As such, it identifies the various options from current available financial risk transfer instruments for addressing crop weather risks for small farmers (livestock risks are not directly addressed in this report), and identifies the public investments needed for supporting market development of the agricultural insurance2 market. It is also expected that this document will serve as the basis for creating awareness and consensus among various stakeholders for the need to identify a public-private partnership for addressing financial weather risks in agriculture. The document will also be of interest to the donor community for identifying funding opportunities on this topic.
The report is structured along five sections to facilitate its presentation. The following presents a snap shot of the Jamaican economy, agricultural sector, and current situation of agricultural insurance; the third section addresses a set of key issues for designing a government strategy on agricultural financial weather risk management; section four contains the elements of public policy and investments to support market development for agricultural insurance, and various illustration on how to structure financial weather risk management instruments for the sector. The report concludes with a short section with final remarks and recommendations.