Insurance opportunities against weather risks for smallholder farmers in Africa

Chapter 6 provides important insights into the promises and limits of production risk management through financial mechanisms. In particular the authors investigate the role that weather index insurance can play in generating better adaptation pathways to weather shocks for smallholder farmers than existing ones. Evidence from several pilot insurance programs shows that although the potential for innovative insurance mechanisms is real, additional work to understand their effectiveness and substantial scale-up efforts will be needed to achieve a sustainable expansion of efficient agricultural insurance markets in Africa.PRIFPRI1; ReSAKSS; IFPRI4; A Ensuring Sustainable food production; E Building ResilienceWCAO; MTI