‘EXPEDITE WEATHER INDEX VALIDATION PROGRAM’

THE Ministry of Agriculture should expedite the validation process for the weather index insurance program amid the army worm outbreak and dry spells experienced in some parts of the country to avoid low crop production, National Association for Smallholder Farmers (NASFA) Executive Director Frank Kayula has said.

The Weather Index Insurance is an innovative approach to manage climate related risks using a pre-defined index, such as rainfall, to determine pay-outs.

Speaking to The Scoop, Dr. Kayula explained that last year, the Government delayed giving farmers their payout as a result of the reluctance from the Ministry of Agriculture to validate claims from insurance companies which led to low production in some areas.

“The Government should expedite the validation process for the Weather Index Insurance program amid the fall army worms which have attacked many fields. If this program is not validated early, chances are that farmers will be affected and will record low crop production,” Dr. Kayula said.

He said there was a need to ensure that this narrative was changed this year for the benefit of the small-scale farmers.

“When designed well, insurance protects small-scale farmers from adverse weather events, but farmers have low demand for these products at market prices. However, new technologies and climate-smart agricultural practices can reduce farmers’ risk exposure and increase their climate resiliency,” he added.

He further explained that the Weather Index Insurance also allowed farmers to plant other crops on time after experiencing crop failure as a result of climate change.

He emphasized the need for more research for farmers to understand how financial products and technologies could be bundled to help them make profitable production decisions and overcome the risk of crop losses and asset damages from worsening climate-change-related weather events.

“Floods, droughts, erratic rainfall and temperature patterns, and other adverse weather events are large and due to climate change, are increasing common sources of risk for farmers that can cause devastating crop losses,” he said.

He added: “Financial products and new farming technologies are strategies that have been promoted to help farmers overcome the low-risk. As an innovative financial product, the Weather Index Insurance was developed to address barriers that small-scale farmers face in adopting agricultural insurance.”

He said Weather Index Insurance simplified the process of verifying claims across many small fragmented farms by basing payouts on an easily observable variable such as rainfall recorded at one weather station for a cluster of nearby farms.