The Government of Zambia has called on insurance firms to develop affordable weather index insurance products in the wake of climate change as they are part of the risk management mechanisms for crop protection among small-scale farmers, Zambia Daily Mail has reported. Minister of Agriculture and Livestock Given Lubinda said the effects of climate change are real, and Zambia is not excluded from the impact, evidenced by the negative impact of the El Niño phenomenon the country experiened during the 2015/16 farming season. “Therefore, farmers’ access to risk mitigation tools such as insurance

Representatives of agricultural financing agencies in Africa are expected in Kigali, Rwanda, next month to come up with solutions to farmers’ financing challenges, KT Press of Rwanda reports. At the African Rural and Agricultural Credit Association-AFRACA conference on best practices in rural agriculture finance, experts will discuss “fast-tracking replicability of functional models in rural and agricultural Finance.” The conference will also discuss weather index insurance, which was recently introduced in Rwanda, the report adds. Headquartered in Nairobi, AFRACA is a regional association of

In June 2016, over 60 participants gathered at the College of insurance in Nairobi to discuss best practices and share their knowledge and expertise on index insurance, particularly livestock insurance and agriculture insurance. The discussions were quite timely, as the Government of Kenya recently allocated US$6 million for crop and livestock insurance for smallholder producers for next year, as one of the ‘key government flagship projects to drive the transformative agenda’. This is a five-fold increase in budget from the previous years with strong allocations toward data systems and premium

Plans are underway to draw up an insurance strategy on agriculture in Tanzania, AllAfrica reports. According to the country's Commissioner of Insurance, a meeting of insurance stakeholders was recently conducted to discuss the strategy. It is hoped that by having the strategy, agriculture will be stimulated, the report adds. Agriculture is Tanzania's economy mainstay, accounting for nearly 30% of GDP, and 67% of the workforce was employed in the sector in 2014. Most Tanzanian farmers are smallholders; few families cultivate more than two hectares. Around 20% of farmers use ox-ploughs, 10% use

Subsistence farmers are often among the world’s most poor and they will need access to financial products if they are to adapt to climate change and the extreme drought, floods and storms it brings, said Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands during the 4th International Climate Change Adaptation Conference in Rotterdam on May 11, 2016. Her Majesty believes that financial services that are more inclusive and insurance innovations, such as index insurance, help reduce many smallholder farmers' vulnerability and increase their ability to escape poverty, and also cites the the Kilimo Salama

The World Bank has welcomed the government's partnership with local insurance companies in crop and livestock cover policies, saying they will benefit smallholder farmers.Country director for Kenya, Ms Diarietou Gaye, said the programme has the potential to positively impact the country's economic development since it will help increase production as well as producer incomes."The large majority of the poor in Kenya are farmers and it will enable them to adopt improved production processes to help break the poverty cycle of low investment and low returns," she said.The bank's Disaster Risk