Farmers In North-east Nigeria To Receive N6.9m Agriculture Insurance

Smallholder Farmers in northeast Nigeria are to receive N6.9 million Insurance payout claims to supplement yield.

In last year’s 2022 farming season, flooding and rainfall were the two key climatic factors that affected the yield of smallholder farmers in Northeast Nigeria. The flood, according to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), affected 245,361 people and led to the destruction of 27,339 Hectares of farmlands in Borno, Adamawa, Yobe and Gombe (BAYG) states.

To cushion the effect of the adverse climatic conditions on farm produce harvested by farmers at the end of the 2022 wet season, 299 smallholder farmers were supported by the USAID-funded Feed the Future Nigeria Rural Resilience Activity and qualified to receive their farmers insurance payout claims from Pula Advisors and partners.

The farmers in Gombe and Yobe states, who acquired farmers’ insurance between July and December 2022, received their payout claims on 22nd March 2023, during the Payout Ceremony in the states while eligible participants in Borno and Adamawa states will receive their payout by the end of March 2023.

The ceremonies were organised by the Rural Resilience Activity, in collaboration with Pula Advisors and Diamond Development Initiatives (DDI). The DDI is a private sector partner working with the Activity to protect the investment of smallholder farmers through agricultural insurance, access to climate-smart seeds and other on-farm good agricultural practices (GAP).

The chief party Feed the Future Nigeria Rural Resilience Activity, Margarita Aswani said “the payout will supplement the low yields recorded by farmers in the wet season, due to the flooding that led to the massive destruction of farmlands in the Northeast.

“For us, it’s about helping our participants to build resilience to economic and climatic shocks like flooding and drought.”

Mercy Corps Nigerian country director, Ndubisi Anyanwu also said; “We hope this payout would reduce the losses of participants who lost part of their yield to flood and drought, and prepare them for the next wet season.”

Speaking during the payout event, the Co-Founder and President of Pula Advisors Rose Margarita said; “As the effects of climate change heighten the risks in agriculture and food production, the need to protect the investments of smallholder farmers has never been greater.

“Our comprehensive insurance coverage pays out if the average yield achieved in a season is lower than the insured yield is a pivotal instrument in de-risking agricultural investments and contributes to the growth and resilience of insured farmers.”

Each of the smallholder farmers; 92 in Adamawa, 44 in Southern Borno, 153 in Gombe and 10 in Yobe, spread across five Agro-Ecological Zones (AEZs) are eligible to receive an amount between N15,000 and N30,000 depending on the AEZ within the state, the type of crop (maize, rice, cowpea or groundnut), the Measured Actual Yield per Hectare, and the Realized Yield as provided by the insurance policy.

The Rural Resilience Activity sees Agricultural insurance as an instrument for de-risking agricultural investments in risk-prone areas of Northeast Nigeria, contributing to the growth and resilience of the economy.

The Activity has so far trained 15,181 farmers on the benefits of insurance while 592 have enrolled in one form of insurance or the other.

Mercy Chukwudiebere