In a Business Mirror article, reporter Cai Orginario wrote about Binhi Crop Insurance, the first crop insurance offered by a private company in the Philippines. Binhi Crop Insurance was developed by CARD Pioneer Microinsurance Inc. (CPMI) in collaboration with the World Bank’s private-sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC). " Initially, the crop insurance will just be available for CARD Mutually Reinforcing Institutions (CARD MRI) agriculture loan clients. After six months, the crop insurance can be availed by rice and corn farmers who are part of cooperatives and are clients...

In a Harvard Business Review article, authors Dean KarlanRebecca, MannJake Kendall, Rohini PandeTavneet, and SuriJonathan Zinman discuss why microfinance is an imporant instrument for people in poverty to protect themselves from shocks such as illness, crop failures, livestock deaths, farming-equipment breakdowns and even wedding or funeral expenses. The article also sheds some light on why uninsured risk — not lack of access to capital — is a primary constraint on investment by farmers. "In India, when farmers were given rainfall index insurance, six percent more farmers focused production...

In an interview with The Ethiopian Herald, published on AllAfrica.com, Solomon Zegeye, Micro Insurance Business Manager at Nyala Insurance Company, said weather index insurance service provided for smallholder farmers has registered positive outcomes in Ethiopia. "The World Bank and the World Food Program (WFP) are also playing crucial role in research and interpretation," said Zegeya on how d onors are involved in the process in providing finance, advise and other technical support. Although farming is the backbone of Ethiopia's economy, it is highly vulnerable to drought, weed, and pests...

The Philippines's Former Agriculture Secretary is now pushing for an act mandating the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC) to offer index-based insurance coverage and allowing it to engage in reinsurance, increasing its funding source, and imposing heavier penalties on spurious claims, Manila Bulltin reports. Congressman Arthur Yap, Economic Affairs Committee Chairman, also said that "with stronger and modern insurance system in the agriculture sector, banks would be more confident to lend to farmers." Congressman Yap also specified the need to encourage private insurance companies to...