Senegal

10
Feb
Weather variability is a key limiting constraint to investments and the modernization of agriculture in Senegal. The drought-prone Sahel is characterized by irregular rainfall and relatively poor soils. Created in 2008 as a public-private partnership, the National Agricultural Insurance Company of Senegal (CNAAS) is in charge of underwriting crop and livestock insurance. At the request of the Minister of Finance of Senegal, a feasibility study was completed in 2009 by the World Bank to assess the potential of index insurance. This study recommended the development of weather-based index
Scaling up index insurance for smallholder farmers: Recent evidence and insights
This report explores evidence and insights from five case studies that have made significant recentprogress in addressing the challenge of insuring poor smallholder farmers and pastoralists in thedeveloping world. In India, national index insurance programmes have reached over 30 million farmersthrough a mandatory link with agricultural credit and strong government support. In East Africa (Kenya,Rwanda and Tanzania), the Agriculture and Climate Risk Enterprise (ACRE) has recently scaled to reachnearly 200,000 farmers, bundling index insurance with agricultural credit and farm inputs. ACRE
Protecting Senegal's Farmers Against Drought and Crop Failure
The soil that Abdoulaye Ndiaye holds in his hand is dry and dusty. A little further away in the Kaolack region the groundnut plants are already beginning to spring up in the fields, but in Paskoto village Abdoulaye and his fellow farmers have not seen a drop so far this season. "The most important challenge for us is the weather. It is God who decides. We have no choice, but are just left looking for ways to handle the situation," Abdoulaye says, now using his hand to shield his eyes against the stark sunlight.
Microfinance and Index Insurance: Testing Business Models in the Agricultural Sector
While access to credit is a key instrument toalleviate rural poverty, microfinance institutions(MFIs) are often unable to expand their agriculturelending portfolio. One of the key constraints thatMFIs face is the exposure of agriculture lending toshocks such as drought, flood, or locust which can putfarmers in a situation where they are unable to repaytheir loans. Major agriculture shocks can indeed leadto loan defaults and bank runs therefore resultingin destruction of risk capital, reduced access toliquidity, decreased lending and sometimes insolvency.Evidence shows that credit supply
PlaNet Guarantee and GIIF to launch first regional management platform for index insurance
PlaNet Guarantee, member of the PlaNet Finance Group, and the GIIF come together to launch the first regional management platform for index insurance. The objective is to cover 60 000 farmers in West Africa by 2015. While agriculture remains the main economic sector in West Africa (on average 30% of the GDP of countries in the region and 70% of the workforce), no risk management tool is offered to farmers to secure their income. In case of drought, floods, or due to other factors that could cause a significant drop in yields, farmers currently receive no form of protection. The traditional
PG activities started in 2012 with weather station-based index insurance (maize, groundnut). Nevertheless the first year the price of the product was really high and few farmers bought the product. The product was reviewed, together with the farmers’ organizations, and CIRAD in 2013.

At the request of the Ministry of Finance of Senegal, a feasibility study was completed in 2009 to assess the potential of index insurance. This study recommended the development of weather-based index insurance for commercial farmers, and suggested a pilot for groundnut farmers in two departments – Nioro and Kaffrine. As a follow-up to these recommendations, CNAAS requested in 2011 financial and technical assistance from the World Bank in order to pilot-test index insurance for groundnut farmers. The objective of the pilot was 1) to test the operational and technical procedures of the weather

In 2011, at the request of CIMA and FANAF, a regional study on microinsurance was conducted with the technical assistance and financial support from the World Bank. This report showed that a new regional framework was required for microinsurance and agricultural index-based insurance, which had been absent, in the CIMA zone. The member countries are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Comoros, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo.