Brothers Raymond and Paul Grima saw three months' worth of work washed away in a sudden downpour last week, as their crops in Wardija were completely spoiled.

Raymond Bartolo estimates that the two lost some €12,000, representing a fourth of their annual income. But what is worse is that they have no insurance cover to turn to.

"We break our backs in good and bad weather every day and then see our work being literally washed away like that. It's not fair," he said.

The rain destroyed strawberries, broccoli and tomato plants, along with an entire tumulo of lettuce and plastic sheeting which is used to control the temperature conditions of certain crops. Even money that went into preparing the soil with chemicals and fertilisers went to waste.

The same fate was met by other farmers, who saw their prayers for rain turn into a curse when the sudden downpours even flooded the streets on Friday wrecking havoc in a matter of minutes.

Louis Naudi, Secretary of the Farmers' Association, said there had been an attempt to set up a crop and harvest insurance for farmers which is still underway.

Farmers have faced problems to find insurers willing to provide such specialised cover and work out the premiums for the first time. Moreover, Mr Naudi said few farmers had, in the past, been willing to report damages they suffered from bad weather, making their job to gather statistics to make their case with insurers all the more difficult. In general the farmers have also been reticent to say how much they are willing to pay for such a service. Without having details about the package and conditions, they were understandably reluctant to commit themselves, Mr Naudi said. But it is a case of the chicken and the egg because the process is important for the association to be able to get things going with insurers.