Agrofest 2024 will focus on educating farmers and agriculture workers on the importance of financial planning and stability, said the exhibition’s organiser, the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS) on Wednesday after signing a sponsorship deal with insurance company Guardian Life.BAS Chief Executive Officer James Paul toured the national exhibition’s site at Queen’s Park with Gregg Mannette, vice president of sales at Guardian Life Caribbean Ltd, as the two organisations announced their cooperation.Paul said many of this year’s exhibitors will have access to agents from the insurance company to advise them on its products aimed at stabilising their businesses financially.“First of all, I want to say that I see this partnership as answering some of the questions that farmers have in terms of how do we survive over the long term. Farming is one of the more riskier of businesses…things do happen. In ordinary work, people think nothing of insurance, [and] in farming it hardly happens,” he told reporters.“It is important [that farmers] do financial planning. In some years, as you know, you make extremely good money, but in some years it is rough, so how do you actually make sure that your earnings go over a straight line over a number of years? That calls for financial planning.”
