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By Elvis Dumba
Banket – Climate change has affected weather patterns around the world, thereby affecting many sectors, which include agriculture.
Tropical cyclones and other climate change-induced weather patterns have contributed to droughts due to lack of rain and excessive rains in different areas with catastrophic consequences in some places where the loss of property and lives has been recorded.
The farming sector heavily relies on weather conditions, and the effects of climate change have not spared the sector.
In Zimbabwe, various initiatives have been put in place to ensure the success of the sector against climate change-induced challenges with farmers urged to take farming as a business.
Various businesses carry various degrees of risks, and farming has no exception, which calls for proper planning.
“Farming success is largely dependent on the farmers’ preparation as that determines your production output.” Jessica Tapfumanei, a commercial farmer based at Nyahondo Farm, about 80 km peg along Harare-Chirundu Highway, said
“As a farmer, you need to be organized. With wrong decisions and actions, a farmer can lose in just two days. It’s the same as delaying by two weeks, and that also affects your yield, ” she said.
An important aspect of the farming business which has been largely ignored by farmers is insurance.
Most farmers are reluctant to take insurance, especially for crops they will be farming due to various factors, which include the insurance sector history in the country.
Tapfumaneyi said most farmers are reluctant to take agriculture insurance due to historical challenges.
“Insurance is an important aspect in securing your crops from unexpected challenges. However, as farmers, we are reluctant to take insurance due to what has been happening in the past, ” she said in an interview on the sidelines of a national wheat pre-planning stakeholders meeting held in Banket recently.
“Most farmers shun insurance due to what has been happening in the sector in the past as the insurance companies have been letting us down. For example, I know of a farmer who was paltry paid by an insurance company for his insured 30 hectares of tobacco which had been destroyed by a hailstorm and we had cases in the past where inflation eroded our insurances,” she argued.
Tapfumanei said that even though there were challenges in the past, insurance is critical for a farmer to guard against hindrances in the sector.
“Insurance is good when it’s being done in good faith. As we as farmers, we will be assured that our crops are protected from unforeseen incidences such as hailstorms and other challenges,” she said.
Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Permanent Secretary, Dr. John Basera said the government has put in place mechanisms to promote insurance to de-risk the agriculture sector.
“Insurance is one of those layers and tools we are using as government, and indeed in the agriculture sector, to climate-proof agriculture and secondly and fundamentally to de-risk agriculture. We need insurance and we are on a drive to promote insurance. Testament to that is the government’s move of creating an insurance company owned by the government. We have AFC Insurance under the banner of Agriculture Finance Corporation that is working on promoting area yield insurance which we know is more objective compared to climate-proof indexed insurance or weather-indexed insurance.
“Here, the payout index is based on the average yield of a particular area or that specific community, and our conviction and ultimate panacea to de-risk agriculture is through irrigation development but ultimately you need insurance across the board to ensure that your irrigation equipment, crops, and farm mechanisation are insured so indeed insurance is one of the building blocks for agriculture transformation,” he said in response to questions from this publication.
Cuthbert Masukume, Agriculture Finance Corporation Insurance General Manager, said farmers are embracing agriculture insurance with the company offering various insurance packages
“We have noted that farmers are embracing insurance, and we are supporting agriculture growth with insurance so that a farmer can manage to continue with farming even when faced with various challenges. For example, in the wheat season, the crop might be affected by frost or veld fire, and as AFC, we offer multi-peril insurance packages. If a farmer gets a loan from us, we also give them insurance so that if his crops fail, we cater for the payment of his loan so that he can continue farming,” he said.
Masukume encouraged farmers to insure their farming business and protect their agriculture investments from the effects of various challenges that may affect their agriculture investments.
