In his inaugural address, Swiss Ambassador Andreas Baum said that climate change, with its wide-reaching impacts, has become one of the biggest challenges humanity is facing. “The poorest people are the ones who contribute least to climate change, yet they are the ones suffering the most. By providing climate risk insurance, along with relevant resilience building capacities, we can safeguard the lives and livelihoods of the rural people, those who are most vulnerable to erratic rainfall, droughts, floods and cyclones”.
Dr. Ashish K. Bhutani, Joint Secretary (Credit & Cooperation), Ministry of Agriculture in his key note addressed underlined the need for increased agricultural insurance penetration in order to enhance the resilience of India’s farmers. Talking about the recently launched Crop Insurance scheme Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), he lauded the Government of India’s initiative which for the first time covers the full agricultural risk of the farmer at a minimal premium of 1.5 to 2 percent. The scheme aims to increase the coverage under crop insurance from around 30 percent of the farmers in 2016 to 50 percent by the year 2018-19, underscoring the enormity of the task. He sought suggestions from the learned experts present at the workshop to especially reach out to the non-loanee farmers to ensure the success of this ambitious scheme.
Many sector experts contributed towards the debate on strategies to enhance voluntary uptake of micro-insurance solutions. It is a complex process requiring intensive awareness raising among the communities on the value proposition of insurance. There was also discussion on the growing importance of technology in the insurance domain and for enhancing the climate resilience of the rural communities.
Ms. Janine Kuriger, Head of the Swiss Cooperation Office, Embassy of Switzerland, in her concluding remarks said “SDC is committed to enhancing the resilience of people's livelihoods and ecosystems”. Switzerland, with its extensive experience in mutual and commercial insurance, is well placed to support innovations and developments in the insurance sector.
“Climate Resilience through Risk Transfer” project is funded by the SDC. The project is implemented by MIA (a project of the Sarvajan Unnati Bodhini Trust – SUB) and BASIX. The overall objective of the RES-RISK project is to create resilience amongst vulnerable populations to climate-related risks, by developing pro-poor micro-insurance solutions for human health, crop, and livestock, three classes of risks that are exacerbated by climate change. Since the start of its implementation in the pilot areas in 2015, the project has reached out to more than 87,000 individuals in three districts of Bihar and Maharashtra. Through creating awareness about the value of insurance, and bundling it with resilience building measures, the project has helped the communities to make informed decisions on insurance cover. It has also involved the target communities, which had little prior experience of insurance, in designing need-based insurance products and operation and management of the of their own mutual insurance schemes.
For more information, contact: Divya Kashyap, Senior Thematic Advisory, Swiss Cooperation Office, Embassy of Switzerland, New Delhi, Phone: +91 11 4995 9500 Ext. 800886.
