Agriculture Insurance

Course Overview

Agriculture remains the economic backbone of Africa—supporting over 60 % of the workforce and contributing up to 35 % of GDP in many countries. But across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Southern Africa, agriculture is increasingly exposed to climate volatility: prolonged droughts, flash floods, pests, and market instability.

For smallholder farmers and pastoralists, who make up the majority of producers, these shocks translate into crop failures, livestock losses, and income instability. For governments and insurers, they create macro-level fiscal stress and supply chain disruptions.

Agricultural insurance, when well designed, plays a transformative role in this landscape. It provides a safety net for farmers, de-risks agricultural finance, and strengthens food system resilience. Over the past decade, African countries have pioneered models such as:

• Kenya’s National Agricultural Insurance Program (KAIP) and the Index-Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI);
• Ethiopia’s R4 Rural Resilience Initiative;
• Rwanda’s weather index pilots;
• Nigeria’s NAIC framework;
• African Risk Capacity (ARC) regional pool.

This course is designed to equip insurers, brokers, regulators, agribusinesses, cooperatives, and development partners with practical skills to design, price, distribute, underwrite, and manage agricultural insurance in Africa. It blends technical rigor with local African context, covering both indemnity and index/parametric approaches.