Researchers supported by the Feed the Future Assets & Market Access Innovation Lab launched an Index-Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI) pilot in the Marsabit District of northern Kenya.
BASIS researchers, in partnership with leading geo-spatial software engineering firm (SI Organization), developed a potential solution to these problems by using satellite information at high resolution, coupled with better modeling approaches, to reduce basis risk and improve index insurance performance.
Index insurance shows considerable promise, especially in settings like the arid and semi-arid lands of east Africa where conventional insurance to cover potentially catastrophic herd losses does not exist.
Index-based livestock insurance (IBLI), aims to protect against the covariate risk of catastrophic livestock loss due to drought. Understanding what determines access to IBLI by gender can shape strategies to equitably provide access to this and other innovative risk management products.
The results from the first sales period in Mali indicated that those farmers who purchased the insurance were more likely to expand their cotton cultivation, increase use of productive inputs and increase the use of seeds.
To support the use of agricultural credit using index insurance The Ohio State University (OSU) and the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET), in collaboration with the University of Ghana, will undertake a program of research, outreach, and education.
The fluctuating yields inherent to rain-fed agriculture may discourage investment in risky but profitable crops, even when farmers have ample access to agricultural loans.
The Borana plateau in southern Ethiopia is a vast arid and semi-arid pastoralist territory. Livestock in this area comprise the majority of household’s non-human capital and are responsible for more than two-thirds of their average income.
