De-risking agriculture through crop insurance? Insights from an impact evaluation of novel insurance solutions

• Climate change has led to increased production risks especially for smallholder farmers who often tend to be more vulnerable • Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has several climate change hotspots and is more vulnerable to weather shocks compared to other regions. • >363 million people affected by drought between 1980-2014 causing > US$31 billion in losses – with 19 billion in East Africa (FAO, 2015) • Agricultural insurance is a risk management tool for extreme weather events; however, its coverage remains lowest in SSA (Hess and Hazell, 2016). • Ex post – insurance payouts help coping with losses • Ex ante – risk reduction can increase investments in agriculture • However, traditional indemnity-based insurance is characterized by high transaction costs and information asymmetry problems • Index-based insurance to address these challenges is plagued by high basis risk

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Waweru, Carol, Kramer, Berber, Cecchi, Francesco, Kivuva, Benjamin, Waithaka, Lilian
Format: Presentation biblioteca
Language:English
Published: International Food Policy Research Institute 2023-04-27
Subjects:climate change, smallholders, shocks, agricultural insurance, inputs,
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/134742
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Summary:• Climate change has led to increased production risks especially for smallholder farmers who often tend to be more vulnerable • Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has several climate change hotspots and is more vulnerable to weather shocks compared to other regions. • >363 million people affected by drought between 1980-2014 causing > US$31 billion in losses – with 19 billion in East Africa (FAO, 2015) • Agricultural insurance is a risk management tool for extreme weather events; however, its coverage remains lowest in SSA (Hess and Hazell, 2016). • Ex post – insurance payouts help coping with losses • Ex ante – risk reduction can increase investments in agriculture • However, traditional indemnity-based insurance is characterized by high transaction costs and information asymmetry problems • Index-based insurance to address these challenges is plagued by high basis risk