NiMet CEO supports farmer insurance programme
To increase food security, Nigerian farmers should be covered by insurance, according to Prof. Charles Anosike, Director General of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet).
He said that the insurance would shield farmers from loss and increase their output.
During a courtesy visit to his office in Abuja, Prof. Anosike received a call from a delegation of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Creating Last-mile Structures for Agricultural Insurance and Weather Advisory Services-A Risk Mitigation and Resilience measure for Smallholder Farmers is the theme of the upcoming Agricultural Insurance and Weather Advisory Services Roundtable, which will be organised in collaboration with NiMet. The DG praised the delegation for their recognition of the role NiMet plays in the agricultural value-chain and other sectors.
He asked the team from USAID to also extend an invitation to the financial sector.
He said: “NiMet does a lot of work in early warnings. When we talk about insurance or early warnings, it’s not just about the productivity of farmers. It’s also about saving lives. Lives have already been lost in the 2024 flood.
“Let’s keep in mind that early warnings save lives. When financial institutions talk about risk management, they focus on shareholder value. If we can get the financial sector in the room for them to begin to integrate climate risk into their operations and risk management, we will be able to convince them. This can help us to achieve the agricultural insurance scheme for farmers.
"Looking at the economy, every issue we are currently facing is made worse by climate change. It amplifies threats. This forces NiMet to choose an alternative approach. In order to guarantee the roundtable's success and the accomplishment of its goals, we shall take part in every facet.
Assuring that NiMet will welcome its stakeholders to participate, he urged the USAID team to think about implementing an insurance program for farmers as a trial before making it available to the general public.
In order to develop capacity among its stakeholders and promote a common vision, Prof. Anosike also told the delegation that NiMet will shortly announce training in weather, water, and climate science.
Accurate weather information is essential for any business to succeed, according to Dr. Ben Odoemena, Chief of Party, Extension Activity, United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
He declared, "Our goal is to work with NiMet and get the agency involved in the roundtable." Bringing the topic to the attention of important players in the banking, insurance, and agriculture sectors, among others, is the main goal of the workshop.
There is a climate change. You are not in business if, while you are operating, you are unsure of whether it will rain today or tomorrow. It impacts every facet of life, not just farming. Strategically, NiMet plays a key role in accomplishing this objective and the proposed stakeholders’ roundtable will strongly complement NiMet’s services.
Without collaborating with NiMet, we are unable to accomplish the goal. Farmers are not purchasing business and farm insurance. Thus, it is within this framework that we stated that, just as insurance coverage in rural areas is either inadequate or nonexistent, so too is weather information dissemination to smallholder and micro farmers in rural areas.
We need to scale the process, even if we know NiMet is working hard and accomplishing amazing things in the field, he continued. We envision a scenario in which a smallholder farmer says, "I want to know what the weather is going to be like tomorrow before I go to the farm."
''It is necessary to instill that awareness in the smallholder farmer. That is the only way we can know that we are on track in agriculture”.
