Agriculture contributes 20 percent of GDP and employs close to half of the labor force in Bangladesh. However, the country is vulnerable to frequent natural disasters that cause serious damages to crops and livestock every year. As a result, lenders are unwilling to extend credit to a sector exposed to natural disasters without risk-mitigating measures.

Cassava farmers via PRAN Foods Ltd | Tomato farmers in low lands (through an NGO) | Farmers producing Hybrid Rice seeds (of Supreme Seeds Company).

Insurer: Green Delta Insurance Ltd.

Distribution Channels: Agribusinesses (Input Suppliers, Contract Farming Entities), NGO-MFIs, and banks.

More than 25 Weather Index Insurance products designed for a large variety of crops (Rice, Hybrid Rice, Potato, Maize, Tomato, Okra, cassava etc.) for different districts of Bangladesh across the three cropping seasons. Three of these products were piloted as of February 2017. A Group Yield Index Insurance product is also designed (and piloted) for Hybrid Rice.

Rice, Potato, Maize, Potato, Cassava, Tomato, Okra.

Drought (dry spells), excess rain (wet-spells), Heat waves (hot spell) and cold spells.

As of February 2017, Green Delta Insurance Company has launched more than 10 index insurance pilots with multiple distribution partners including cassava, potato, tomato, cucumber, bitter guard, maize, hybrid rice farmers (via partners e.g. PRAN Foods Ltd. (for cassava), Supreme Seeds Ltd. (for hybrid rice seeds), Renaissance Enterprise (for tomato, cucumber, and bitter guard), Eastern Trade Ltd. (for industrial potato), and SEBA Trading Company (for potato). In the pilot with tomato farmers, the enhanced claims process has motivated more than 3,000 covered farmers (of this pilot) to buy insurance for other crops in other seasons. The project has also been providing capacity-building activities for GDIC to use in product pricing and administration. By the end of the project, the project expects to have covered approximately 75,000 farmers in the country.

The project aims to create an eco-system where agriculture insurance will be delivered through multiple partners in the agriculture value chain of Bangladesh. GDIC will work towards multiple pilots in 2018 to deliver agriculture insurance as a bundled product with banks, MFIs, seed companies, input suppliers and contract farming entities. These pilots are expected to create a demonstration effect in Bangladesh as well as to global observers, highlighting the value of agriculture insurance in the agriculture value chain. The project plans to leverage the existing network of GDIC to link up with several distribution channels, targeting a variety of farmers for scale and volume to reach commercial sustainability.