Insurance protection for farmers in Ghana

PEACE FM Online (Ghana): Climate change is currently widely accepted as a reality, and adaptation to it is one of the biggest challenges facing the vast majority of the people in the developing world particularly countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Its effects higher temperatures, increased frequency and intensity of droughts and floods, as well as other weather-related perils pose risks for the very poor and vulnerable whose source of livelihood depends mainly on subsistence agriculture.

Research has shown that by 2100, mean daily temperatures in Ghana will rise by three degrees Celsius and rainfall frequency will decline by between 9% and 27% -- with increasing seasonal and spatial variations.

Against this background, a German International Cooperation (GIZ)-supported project - “Innovative Insurance Products for Adaptation to Climate Change” (IIPACC) - has been initiated to support the country in tackling the socio-economic costs and risks associated with climate change.

The aim of the project is to facilitate the development and introduction of agricultural insurance solutions for farmers. These are in the form of innovative, demand-oriented agricultural insurance products and are intended to protect farmers, agro-processors, rural and financial institutions, input dealers among others, in the event of crop-failure due to extreme weather events such as drought, excessive rainfall and flood.

The project is jointly implemented by the National Insurance Commission (NIC) and GIZ-IIPACC in collaboration with the Ghana Insurers Association (GIZ), and is funded by the German Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety...