More Than 12,000 Kenyan Farmers Compensated Following Crop Failure

Not less than 12,000 farmers have been compensated with USD 981K following maize crop failure last season in a government project which aims to achieve food security.

The farmers who have received compensation hail from 20 counties majority of whom are from Meru, Uasin Gishu, Bungoma, Kilifi, Nakuru and Narok.

Agriculture protection is the protection farmers get from insurance companies for their crops as well as livestock in the instance there is a calamity. Kenya is not safe when it comes to food security as crops are frequently attacked and destroyed by pests and diseases and natural calamities like floods, drought.

Although Agriculture insurance has been in the country for many decades, a majority of the farmers have been reluctant to take it up may be because they cannot afford it or could be that they lack proper information about it. But recent statistics show that the number of farmers taking up crop insurance has started to record a rise.

“Farmers are embracing crop insurance because they have discovered it mitigates against crop failure. When rains fail farmers suffer because their harvests are affected and this is what the project seeks to address,” said Ms Jacinta Ngwiri, head of crop insurance at the Agriculture ministry.

While on the subject, the government in the recent released 2019/20 financial year budget allotted USD 3 Mn for a subsidised crop insurance project being implemented in collaboration with 27 counties. Depending with the size of land cultivated, the state pays half the premium ranging between USD 28 and USD 4 in the subsidised insurance project.

“At the time of inception in 2015 we started with 900 farmers but currently we have registered 425,000 farmers in agriculture-rich counties,” said Ms Ngwiri.

Featured Image Courtesy: Carbon Brief