Farmers who do not have insurance against not receive compensation in the event of disasters.

THIS EUROPEAN DIRECTIVE WILL BEGIN TO BE EFFECTIVE FROM 1 JANUARY 2010.

In the Canary Islands, the agricultural insurance program will cover, along with natural disasters such as fires or floods, the damage caused by the “heat waves”.

With the incorporation of this measure, agricultural insurance, that already covered the effects of wind, pouring rain, fire and flood, is now equated to the rest of agricultural crops.

Another of the incentives of the new insurance program will be the granting of higher scores in the calls for subsidies to those farmers and ranchers who are insured..

According to data provided by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Government of the Canary Islands, subsidies to Canary Islands producers by the Ministry and the MARM, allowed us to reach the 78% of the net cost of underwriting policies; the maximum allowed by the EU.

However, The Ministry regrets the low level of insurance in the Canarian horticultural subsector, which is around a 4% of all farmers. This does not happen in banana and tomato crops, which are among the most insured., reaching almost one hundred percent.