Farmers are being encouraged to join the benefits schemes of the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS) as fear continues to loom surrounding the possible depletion of the funds at the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) in 12 years’ time.On Tuesday BAS director Henderson Williams told Barbados TODAY that the association was working on an initiative to partner with an insurance broker to offer farmers pension and medical packages.Admitting that a number of farmers did not make contributions to the NIS, Williams said that some self-employed people encountered challenges handling some of their business’ affairs and this was an opportunity to put a structured form of security in place in the event of an unforeseen circumstance.“Some people do make contributions but I can’t tell you that the majority of them do . . .Most [insurance] policies go to organisations where they can plan and track so they can analyse how a plan performs and make necessary adjustments on that basis.
