Agriculture Insurance

The Agriculture Working Group seeks to promote the wider use of agricultural insurance, particularly crop and livestock insurance, as a modern financial risk management instrument in developing countries.

News

Roland Steinmann from the MicroInsurance Centre joined Mark Wenner from the IDB to co-chair this Working Group in 2011.

The group met for the second time this year in November at the 7th International Microinsurance Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Annual workplan

During 2011, the Working Group will:

• Prepare case studies for the upcoming second edition of the Microinsurance Compendium
• Explore the relation between index insurance and climate change
• Exchange of information about activities related to agricultural insurance between Working Group members;
• Prepare and publish a report on minimal conditions needed for effective implementation of area yield and parametric insurance products;
  
• Prepare and publish a report on How to Overcome Data Limits in the Design of Agricultural Insurance Products;
• Update the online inventory of agricultural insurance projects from 2008.

Additional information

The Agriculture Working Group focuses on microinsurance as a risk management instrument that can protect assets, facilitate rural poverty reduction, enhance farm investment and productivity, and increase financial deepening.

Past activities

2010

The "Annotated Bibliography: Microinsurance aspects in agricultural insurance" was updated in March 2010 (it was first published in 2006). The documents are organised by year of publication and if available online, links are provided to download.

The bibliography is available on the Munich Re Foundation website

2008

An Inventory of Agricultural Insurance Projects was compiled and posted on the Munich Re Foundation website.

The Ford Foundation hired the Microinsurance Centre to undertake a landscape survey on agriculture microinsurance, and develop a website of resources consisting of relevant agricultural insurance papers and links to expertise on agricultural insurance in developing countries.

The paper suggested future projects that could be undertaken by the Agriculture Insurance Working Group, undertaken by IFAD (The International Fund for Agricultural Development):

• Case Studies of twelve Experiences Introducing Weather Index Insurance;
• Evaluation of Sustainability and Scalability of Weather Index Insurance.

Mode of operations

The Working Group:

• Holds quarterly meetings (in person and/or virtual);
• Maintains an electronic bulletin board or Wiki page on activities of each members projects as well as relevant information on other developments in agricultural risk management;
• Is structured in sub committees of 3-4 persons will form around each major work topic and be responsible for mobilising necessary resources and delivering final product.