MAFF mulls climate change insurance for farming communities
MAFF mulls climate change insurance for farming communities
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries is considering the possibility of introducing climate change insurance into modern farming communities to help farmers from the risks caused by the climate change.
Climate change is a new concern for Cambodia’s agricultural sector, although it has impacted the sector for a long time, said Khim Finan, Under Secretary of State and Spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), on Saturday.
He said that MAFF is now more concerned about it. Climate change has happened for a long time, but this is the first year that it has started affecting the farming community in a big way including drought, swarms of armyworms, whiteflies and flooding.
“All this requires us to be prepared in advance, and I hope this year it will give a clear signal to the farmers to be vigilant in advance,” Finan said.
“We are now considering whether it is possible to integrate climate change insurance into a modern farming community because if we can do this, we can guarantee that if there is a problem, there is insurance to help.”
The MAFF is holding discussions with Forte Insurance, which has launched agricultural insurance services on climate change, guarantee in rice, cashew and other crops.
He said that the ministry is also open to welcoming other insurance companies that can be associated with modern farming communities.
According to Finan, so far there is only one modern farming community – the Neang Am community – in Siem Reap province, while six other communities are in the pipeline.
Finan explained that when farmers form a modern farming community, the ministry tries to protect them from at least five risks including protect from the risk of climate change, lack of capital, lack of technical knowledge, market risk and pricing.
“The policy of the Royal Government and the Ministry of Agriculture is that we expand this modern agricultural community not so much because we want the economies of scale. Soon we will have the modern farming community across the country with all the major crops in Cambodia and use the open policies for everyone who wants to join the modern farming community,” Finan underlined.
Crop insurance coverage has increased more than 40 percent to cover over 76,000 farmers in the country, as per data shared at an event titled, ‘Updates of Insurance Market in Cambodia’, on July 18 in Phnom Penh.
Ny Lyhoung, Business Unit Head/CEO of Forte Micro and Agriculture Insurance, said during the event that more than 76,000 farmers have subscribed to Weather Index Crop Insurance against climate change.
He added that today this coverage extends to about 77,000 hectares of rice fields in the country, including 600 villages in three target provinces of Battambong, Kapong Thom and Prey Veng province.
Crop insurance was first started as a pilot project in 2015 by Forte, which has operated in Cambodia for the last 25 years.
