IT was not so long ago when the Northern Marianas had an agriculture-based economy. Even before World War II, the islands survived through the production of sugar and copra.
But when the war broke out, the island’s agriculture was completely destroyed.
Recently, nine House members led by William S. Torres, chairman of the House Committee on U.S. and Foreign Affairs, have pre-filed a resolution appealing to the U.S. undersecretary of farm and foreign agriculture to direct the Department of Agriculture Risk Management Agency to implement the federal crop insurance program in the CNMI and the rest of the U.S. insular areas.
The program, according to the lawmakers, “would help local farmers tremendously” by supplementing the existing non-disaster financial and technical assistance program currently funded by the USDA Farm Service Agency.
They said diversifying CNMI’s economy would be consistent to the recommendations made in two federal studies—“An Economic Study for the CNMI” (Oct. 1999) and a report to the U.S. Congressional Committees in Conference Report 105-825- that specific actions be taken immediately by the commonwealth to develop an economic base beyond tourism and garment industries.
