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Business Writer

FARMERS have been encouraged to invest in crop and livestock insurance as a key measure in mitigating financial risks associated with farming.

The 2023/24 drought, exacerbated by El Niño, resulted in significant crop losses and livestock deaths, highlighting the sector’s vulnerability to climate-related risks.

Despite Government initiatives, farmers remain exposed to financial losses due to unpredictable weather events.

The Government’s strategic plan for the 2024/25 agricultural summer plan identifies insurance as a key factor for a successful season.

Addressing delegates at a recent one-day conference held under the theme “Ensuring food, feed and oilseed security, AFC Insurance Managing Director Mr Cuthbert Masukume said agricultural insurance is a vital financial instrument that safeguards farmers’ investments and provides a crucial safety net against climate-related risks.

“By transferring the financial burden of weather-related losses to insurers, insurance empowers farmers to maintain operations, invest in improved practices and contribute to food security,” he said.

The conference was organised by the country’s biggest diversified media group, Zimbabwe Newspapers (1980) Limited in partnership with the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development.

Mr Masukume said available insurance solutions include multi-Peril Crop Insurance, covering perils such as hail, flood, fire, pests, disease, theft, impact and loss in transit.

Other insurance schemes include index insurance policies that incorporate Weather Index Insurance and Area Yield Index Insurance, covering production-related risks like drought, excess rainfall, pests and diseases.

Livestock insurance, which caters for death due to accidental, violent, external and visible means as well as illness or disease is another scheme that farmers can utilise.

Mr Masukume noted that in Goromonzi, farmers who joined the Hybrid Index Insurance for the 2023/2024 summer cropping season will soon receive compensation for crop losses due to the El Niño-induced drought.

Farming insurance is an important tool in climate risk management that can help ensure smallholders are able to plant again the following season even if crops fail in the current one, and encourage them to take risks to invest more in their farms even when the climate is so unpredictable.

A well-designed insurance programme can help improve farmers’ resilience, access to finance and high-quality inputs.