Weather Insurance- a Boon for Farmers?

Weather Insurance: To tackle the uncertainty 

Agriculture is still the dominant sector in India, contributing around 24 per cent of GDP and providing employment to two-third of its population. However, most of it is rain-fed and prone to unfavourable weather conditions like deficit or excess rainfall and variations in temperature. Though phenomenon of unpredictable rainfall in India remains an unresolved issue, weather insurance has emerged as a ray of hope to farmers to tackle the uncertain pattern of their crops. 

Weather Insurance- an insurance cover against crop losses incurred due to unfavorable weather conditions such as deficit, excess or untimely rainfall or variations in temperature. Weather insurance product is designed on the basis of location’s agricultural and climatic properties and productivity levels over the last several years. This serves as a good alternative to farmers for mitigating their production-related losses.

Oxfam India organized a state level consultation in collaboration with Sajjata Sangh and Development Support Centre on March 6 in Ahmedabad. The event was attended by farmers, government officials and companies offering weather insurance to share their experiences to promote weather insurance in the state of Gujarat, talk about the benefits, and challenges of the weather insurance scheme.   

The workshop also helped in experience sharing regarding promotion of weather insurance in Gujarat as well as neighbouring states. The associated issues were communicated to various stakeholders and were encouraged for higher patronage of the risk mitigation tool among the farmers.

“Promotion of rainfall insurance as risk transfer tool is being promoted by Sajjata Sangh, a network of 28 prominent NGOs working on issues of natural resource management, in Gujarat. Sajjata Sangh is making efforts to popularize the concept, and generating awareness on the benefits for wider adoption. The Sangh also makes collective efforts to create a favorable policy environment for the promotion of participatory policies and procedures in natural resource management programmes”, explained Natu Macwana, Coordinator, Sajjata Sangh.

Oxfam India, through its project on “Promoting Community Resilience to Disaster Risks through Promotion of Weather Insurance”, is playing a crucial role in scaling up this initiative. For the past two years, intense efforts are on for creating demand among the small and marginal farmers and thus reduce their vulnerability. The project is being implemented in 17 blocks of 7 districts- those facing frequent drought due to deficient and excessive rainfall. This year, Oxfam India, in consultation with farmers, has helped in designing area-specific rainfall insurance products for Groundnut, cotton and maize.

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(Story Credit: Manisha Sharma)