The Nigeria Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) says insurance for farmers is imperative due to the negative impact of climate change.
The Manager of NAIC in Enugu State, Mr Andrew Uzomah, said in Enugu on the sideline of a lecture on “The Need for Insurance for Smallholder Farmers’’ at the ongoing International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Financial Literacy for Farmers in Enugu.
He said that the current negative impact of climate change had made the environment “more vulnerable to negative impact and unpredictable’’.
According to him, the exposure to risk and losses in farming practice is more pronounced today than what we know in the history of the country.
“It is in the best and wise interest of farmers – whether big time, medium or smallholders farmers – to insure their crops within its duration on the farm.
“Those in the value chain or value addition aspect of farming can insure their work or processing equipment with payment of little premium.
“Insurance act as safeguard in case if things go bad and to ensure that the farmer is not totally kicked out of farming after a recorded loss due to natural devastation or other unforeseeable conditions,’’ he said.
The manager said that for smallholder farmers of just one hectare, the farmer only pay between one or two per cent of the actual known quantity cost of cultivating his type of crop on a given hectare of land.
“For instance, for a hectare of cassava farm, which is usually peg at between N200,000 and N240,000.
“The insurance premium to be paid by a smallholder farmer should be about N4,000 for six months duration of the cassava production.
“This low premium also goes for other crops within a hectare as far as small holder farms are concerned,’’ he added.
Smallholder farmers participating in the training were drawn from communities in five pilot council areas within Enugu State where IFAD programme is currently operating.
The beneficiary council areas for the IFAD’s Value Chain Development Programme Additional-Financing (VCDP-AF) are Aninri, Isiuzo, Nkanu East, Udenu and Enugu East.
For the pilot council areas, Aninri, Isiuzo and Nkanu East concentrated on rice farming while Udenu and Enugu East engage in cassava production.
The ongoing two days workshop, which started on June 22, would end on June 23.
