KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 15): The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has agreed to the development of Bank Pertanian Malaysia Bhd’s (Agrobank) new business model which involves the offering of a syariah-compliant agrofood takaful protection scheme.
Agriculture and Food Industries Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ronald Kiandee said the scheme was created to fulfil the needs of the agrofood community, which is experiencing uncertainty in the source of income due to natural disasters.
“To ensure the smooth offering of this scheme, Agrobank is now awaiting the decisions of Bank Negara Malaysia and the Labuan Financial Services Authority for further authority.
“The scheme is expected to be launched in the first quarter of 2022 and the first phase will involve a protection scheme for padi farmers nationwide,” he said during the question-and-answer session in the Dewan Negara here on Wednesday (Dec 15).
He was responding to a question from Senator Datuk Jefridin Atan about the progress of the ministry’s efforts to introduce agricultural or agrofood insurance protection schemes for contributors affected by natural disasters and crop diseases.
Elaborating, Ronald said the scheme will be expanded in 2023 to cover the fisheries, crops, plantation and other food industry sub-sectors.
He stressed that the government was very concerned and took seriously the problems faced by farmers, breeders and fishermen, especially those from the bottom 40% income group, who had small-scale production levels and were often exposed to production risks.
“Among the risks are natural disasters such as floods, weather and climate change, outbreaks of diseases and pests as well as market price instability that affects their sources of income,” he said.
On March 11, Ronald asked Agrobank to spearhead efforts to introduce agricultural or agrofood insurance protection schemes to target groups nationwide.
Source: https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/mof-given-nod-agrobanks-business-model-agrofood-takaful-scheme-says-ronald-kiandee