Improving Agricultural Productivity and Resilience with Satellite and Cellphone Imagery to Scale Climate-Smart Crop Insurance (Cultiaf-2)
The livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers across the developing world are under threat from extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, and heatwaves. Risks are projected to increase significantly in future years due to climate change and the anticipation of possible losses discourages farmers from making productivity-enhancing investments, thereby trapping them in low-risk, low-return agriculture.
Agricultural insurance, complemented with other risk-reducing practices, can be a sustainable approach to unlock investments in agriculture for smallholders that improve their resilience and productivity. Crop insurance protects farmers against financial risks posed by extreme weather events and has been widely advocated as a tool to help farmer households escape poverty traps and invest in climate-smart high-productivity agriculture.
The number of successful insurance schemes targeting smallholders is limited due to high monitoring and verification costs of traditional insurance; low demand for index-based insurance (designed to eliminate the need to verify losses) mainly due to poor trust and basis risks (i.e. the imperfect correlation between farmers’ actual losses and insurance payouts); and the fact that insurance products often neglect complementary risk-management options such as irrigation and drought-tolerant cultivars.
This project aims to overcome these problems through climate-smart picture-based insurance, which uses satellite and cellphone imagery to verify losses, observe management practices, and promote the adoption of productivity-enhancing and resilient technologies through advisories and bundling. Ground pictures taken by farmers will help reduce monitoring costs, minimize basis risks, and create synergies with climate-smart resilience technologies. By taking pictures of insured crops, farmers engage directly in the insurance process and improve trust and tangibility. The project will compare the picture and satellite-based insurance with the current area and yield-based insurance and it will assess the effectiveness of increasing the productivity, resilience, and food security of women, men, and youth smallholder farmers in Kenya.
This project is funded through the second phase of the Cultivate Africa’s Future Fund (CultiAF-2), a joint program of IDRC and the Australian International Food Security Research Centre of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research. CultiAF supports research to achieve long-term food security in eastern and southern Africa.
Project ID
109076
Project Status
Active
Duration
42 months
IDRC Officer
Mercy Rurii
Total Funding
CA$ 1,695,600.00
Location
Kenya
Institution Country
Kenya
Project Leader
Benjamin Kivuva
Institution
Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization
Institution Website
Institution Country
Kenya
Project Leader
Lilian Waithaka
Institution
Agriculture and Climate Risk Enterprise Limited
Institution Website
Outputs
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Gender-inclusive, -responsive, and -transformative agricultural insurance : a literature review Article
In many low-income countries, agricultural producers face significant climate-related risks that undermine the resilience of their production and food supply systems. Agricultural insurance can help mitigate some of these risks, enabling farmers to increase farm investments, incomes, and food and nutritional security. This paper conducts a literature review to evaluate the extent to which agricultural insurance is gender-inclusive and gender-responsive (i.e., reaches and benefits both women and men), and whether there is potential for such insurance to empower women or even become gender-transformative. We find that existing agricultural insurance products are designed and delivered in ways that limit reach and benefits of insurance for women. Empirical research has focused less on the question whether insurance empowers women, let alone whether it has a transformative effect by changing institutional norms that perpetuate gender inequities. We present a case study of a crop insurance program in Kenya to discuss how agricultural insurance, if adequately designed, can have stronger impacts on gender-related outcomes. Empirically testing these approaches to agricultural insurance design is a key priority for future research. Author(s): Timu, Anne G., Kramer, Berber Language: English |
Climate-smart crop insurance to promote adoption of stress-tolerant seeds : midterm findings from a cluster randomized trial Brief
Too often, smallholder farmers suffer severe financial consequences from extreme weather events, pests, and disease; and climate change will increase the frequency at which natural hazards occur. This project note describes the findings from a research program in Kenya that aims to design, implement, and evaluate more complete risk management solutions; in particular, a solution that promotes stress-tolerant crops and varieties using an innovative picture-based crop insurance (PBI) product. The note first describes this intervention and the study designed to measure its impacts, followed by an overview of key findings at midline. This will include insights on the scalability of picture-based claims settlement, opportunities for more gender-responsive program design, and demand for the insurance product. We conclude by describing key challenges faced whilst implementing these solutions and providing an outlook for the future. Author(s): Cecchi, Francesco, Chegeh, Joseph, Aredo, Samson Dejene, Kivuva, Benjamin, Kramer, Berber, Waithaka, Lilian, Waweru, Carol Language: English |
A new model for inclusive seed delivery : lessons from a pilot study in Kenya - leveraging champion farmers’ entrepreneurial know-how to reach the last mile Brief
Climate change has exacerbated the frequency and severity of extreme weather events affecting the livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers across Sub-Saharan Africa. The formal seed sector is an important entry point to help farmers better manage these risks, as it provides access to high-quality certified seeds of improved stress-tolerant varieties. The challenge, however, is that the formal market is not always inclusive and is more accessible to middle- or largescale (and often male) farmers. Smaller farmers (often female) are more likely to obtain seeds from informal sources. This creates social inequities in distribution channels for quality seeds. ACRE Africa provides agricultural insurance products as part of a wholistic integrated risk management approach, with the aim of de-risking the farmer at all stages of production. ACRE engages champion farmers in their activities as part of their efforts to increase farmers’ access to quality seeds, and to diversify champion farmer revenue streams. Using their social networks, champions can form a bridge between informal, semi-formal and formal systems, providing both women and men with better access to quality seeds. Author(s): Kramer, Berber, Waweru, Carol, Waithaka, Lilian, Waithaka, Jean, Chegeh, Joseph, Chegeh, Benjamin, Chegeh, Francesco Language: English |
Edutainment, gender and intra-household decision-making in agriculture : a field experiment in Kenya Brief
This project note describes a field experiment evaluating the use of gender edutainment to increase smallholder farmers’ awareness of existing gender biases, the repercussions of intimate partner violence for creating an open space to share knowledge and insights within the household, and the importance of intrahousehold joint decision-making to help close gender (social) gaps. The experiment was implemented in the context of an agricultural risk management program in Kenya that aims to increase smallholder households’ resilience in the face of climate change. Author(s): Aju, Stellamaris, Kramer, Berber, Waithaka, Lilian Language: English |
Championing gender in agricultural services in Kenya Study
Agricultural services are fundamental to driving agricultural development. In designing these services, it is critical to consider gender roles from the outset to identify effective pathways for change and to avoid exacerbating gender inequality. In this project note, we analyze the functioning of this champion farmer model using a case study in Kenya. We seek to assess gender-based barriers that champion farmers may face in providing agricultural services. Specifically, the case study provides insights into opportunities that drive champion farmers to start their entrepreneurial activities to deliver agricultural services, the barriers that they face in carrying out these activities, and the extent to which farmers in their communities see them as social influencers. Author(s): Kramer, Berber, Bikketi, Edward, Gumucio, Tatiana, Cecchi, Francesco, Waithaka, Lilian, Waweru, Carol Language: English |
Improving agricultural productivity and resilience with satellite and cellphone imagery to scale climate-smart crop insurance Report
Author(s): Kramer, Berber Language: English |
L’imagerie des satellites et des téléphones cellulaires augmente l’assurance-récolte adaptée aux changements climatiques au Kenya Dossiers
Author(s): Wrenmedia Language: French |
Satellite and cellphone imagery Brief
Researchers will use satellite and cellphone imagery to verify crop losses due to extreme weather events, observe management practices and engage with farmers, and rigorously evaluate the demand for, and impacts of insurance packages. The project expects to train 45,000 farmers on the benefits of climate-smart risk management strategies, of which a third are expected to adopt the technology. Climate change is expected to exacerbate farmers’ vulnerability to extreme weather. The anticipation of possible losses discourages farmers from making productivity-enhancing investments, trapping them in low-risk yet low-return agriculture. Author(s): Wrenmedia Language: English |