Supporting farmers through weather-based index insurance

Owing to the near real-time availability and skill in detecting anomalous conditions, TAMSAT data is increasingly used in the financial sector to provide weather-index insurance (WII) to farmers across Africa. Like traditional insurance, WII provides financial protection against crop losses caused by adverse weather, but rather than insurers having to verify crop losses, WII pays-out based on a breach of a weather threshold. This approach makes WII cheaper to administer and more affordable to farmers. Moreover, with the use of TAMSAT data, WII is no longer limited to those farmers in close proximity to weather stations, meaning more farmers have access to financial support should their crops fail.

Zambian-based Risk Shield Consultants (RSC) have exclusively used TAMSAT rainfall data since 2013 to insure farmers in Angola, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Through RSC, TAMSAT data was used in the Zambian Government’s Farmer Input Support Programme, insuring over 2 million farmers since 2017 and over 8 millions since 2013 across Africa.

The photos below were taken during a joint Risk Shield-TAMSAT workshop in March 2023 in Lusaka, Zambia where a range of stakeholders from the finance and agricultural sectors in Zambia were given training on how TAMSAT rainfall and soil moisture estimates can be used in WII.