Agriculture Insurance Program - SMART Punjab Pakistan
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GIIF is operating in Pakistan as part of the World Bank Group’s Strengthening Markets for Agriculture and Rural Transformation in Punjab (SMART Punjab) Program-for-Results that aims at increasing the productivity of crop and livestock farmers, improving their climate resilience and fostering agribusiness development in Punjab Province of Pakistan.
SMART Punjab, supported by a five-year (2018-2023) US$ 300 million loan from IBRD has three main pillars: 1) increase the productivity and incomes of crop and livestock smallholder farmers including women farmers, 2) increase value added in agriculture, and 3) improve farmers' resilience to climate change and natural disasters.
GIIF’s involvement is pertaining to the program’s element around agricultural insurance which kicked-off with crop insurance pilot for the “Kharif” cropping (summer crops during March-October) in four out of Punjab’s 36 districts, followed by an extension during the “Rabi” cropping season (winter crops during October-March) in nine districts. As of the end of 2018, almost 30,000 policies had been sold. The pilot is observing how implementing agencies, led by the Department of Agriculture, are assessing crop yields and conducting crop reporting.
It is also testing how insurance companies are readying themselves to underwrite agriculture insurance and the financial institutions to bundle insurance with the credit system in response to consumer demand. Another major focus of the pilot conducting awareness raising activities that help educate the Pakistani farmers on agriculture insurance.