Bangladesh needs to scale up weather index-based crop insurance considering the vulnerability of farmers at a time when climate changes fast, speakers said at a workshop on Tuesday.
They also said the government may take up more pilot projects and conduct feasibility studies if the authorities concerned do not feel satisfied with the outcomes of six pilot schemes undertaken in 20 upazilas of three districts-Rajshahi, Sirajganj and Noakhali.
The weather index-based crop insurance (WIBCI) project authority of state-owned Sadharan Bima Corporation organised the workshop styled "WIBCI scale-up options: challenges, potentials and way forward" in the city.
Syed Shahriyar Ahsan, managing director of Sadharan Bima Corporation (SBC), chaired the programme while Arijit Chowdhury, additional secretary of Financial Institutions Division, attended it as the chief guest.
Arup Kumar Chatterjee, principal financial sector specialist at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), was present as guest of honour at the inaugural session of the workshop.
WIBCI project director Wasiful Hoq gave welcome speech at the inaugural session.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Chowdhury said they had already asked the SBC to put forward their recommendations for six pilot projects.
"We want to scale up the crop insurance, but we need recommendations from the implementing agency of the SBC as to whether they are satisfied with the outcomes of six pilot projects," he said.
He also said if the SBC considers taking up more pilot projects in more districts, they can also recommend it.
"We've seen the farmers' interest in innovative products and for this reason, we want to scale up it," Mr Chowdhury added.
SBC managing director Mr Ahsan said farmers in different pilot project areas show interest in insurance products.
Agriculture insurance is necessary to protect the farmers from weather shocks, he added.
"Insurance as a safety net allows innovation in agriculture," the SBC MD said.
He also said a pure commercial perspective current potential business for crop insurance is estimated to be around Tk 10.0 billion.
"As our agriculture GDP grows and we move from subsistence agriculture to more commercial agriculture so does the business potential for the insurance companies in future."
With launching of WIBCI pilot projects, he added: "We have managed to open the door for commercial agriculture in Bangladesh."
He said crop insurance is important for banks and micro-finance institutions too.
"Presence of crop insurance allows them to lend to the farming sector at lower risk. It has been established that agricultural-credit flow improves with a strong crop insurance programme."
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