TheCable

Heifer International, an organisation working to eradicate poverty and hunger, says it has collaborated with Leadway, Olam and PULA to insure rice farmers against climate change.

Pula is an agricultural insurance and technology company.

The company disclosed in a recent statement, introducing Area Yield Index Insurance (AYII) as a solution to protect farmers from bad yields.

AYII aims to see that farmers do not suffer loss, ensuring the sustainability of their agribusinesses and incomes.

Citing research carried out by PULA, the statement added that AYII had helped smallholder farmers in countries facing climate change risks to increase their resilience to shocks, increase investment by 16 percent, improve yields by 56 percent and increase household savings by up to 170 percent.

Rufus Idris, country director, Heifer Nigeria, said the project is to mitigate climate change-induced losses and restore investors’ confidence in rice farming.

“Constant exposure to unreliable weather conditions, new pests and diseases, cripple farmers’ businesses and discouraged agribusiness financiers and investors,” he said.

“Most smallholder farmers in Nigeria see insurance as a burden without any benefits. When farmers are interested, the cost can be prohibitive, as they have to pay for it at the beginning of the farming season, when their limited funds are needed for inputs and preparing the land.

“We believe insurance is an innovative financial solution that can increase the resilience of smallholder farmers in Nigeria. Designed by PULA and supported by Heifer International, the scheme will make farmers aware of the benefits of insurance and increase coverage, attracting more financiers to the sector to improve financial resilience for millions of farmers.”

On his part, Reji George, Olam’s vice president for farming initiatives, said the company is committed to supporting the growth of smallholder farmers and part of innovative solutions that improve financial resiliency among Nigerian smallholder rice farmers.

The company further said the insurance would be pre-financed, with smart rice farmers taking up the AYII coverage and paying it back at harvest when the off-taker buys back the rice produced. 

The statement further added that 4,358 smallholder rice farmers in Benue and Nasarawa states have benefited from pre-financed pay-at-harvest AYII for the 2021 wet farming season, with plans to support up to 10,000 farmers next farming season and scale up to 100,000 smallholder farmers by 2030.