[NAIROBI] Weather-based index insurance can work for millions of smallholder farmers in Africa and the rest of the developing world on a large scale, a report says.
The report by CGIAR’s Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) at the US-based Columbia University was launched last month (26 January) and discusses cases from Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, India and Mongolia.
Researchers examined current operational insurance programmes that have been expanded to cover and transform the livelihoods of thousands or millions of farmers.
Helen Greatrex, lead author and a postdoctoral researcher at IRI, explains that index insurance can help populations whose livelihoods depend on the weather — such as smallholder farmers and pastoralists — to manage changing climate risks.
via www.scidev.net