Scaling up index insurance for smallholder farmers: Recent evidence and insights
This report (PDF) by CGIAR CCAFS explores evidence and insights from five case studies that have made significant recent progress in addressing the challenge of insuring poor smallholder farmers and pastoralists in the developing world. The case studies include cases in: Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Mongolia, Rwanda, Senegal and Tanzania. A few common features appear to have contributed to recent progress within these case studies: 1) explicitly targeting obstacles to improving farmer income; 2) integration of insurance with other development interventions; 3) giving farmers a voice in the design of products; 4) investing in local capacity; and 5) investing in science-based index development. This report demonstrates that despite challenges, there are index insurance programmes that have made recent advances in scaling up services for relatively poor smallholder farmers and pastoralists in the developing world, with demonstrable benefits.