Farmers in North East to get N6.9m agric insurance

Smallholder farmers in four North East states of Borno, Adamawa, Yobe and Gombe will receive N6.9 million as insurance payout claims to supplement yield lost during the 2022 farming season.

The insurance payout aimed to cushion the effect of the adverse climatic conditions on farm produce harvested by farmers at the end of the 2022 wet season, where flooding and rainfall affected the yield of the smallholder farmers.

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) had said the flood affected 245,361 people and led to the destruction of 27,339 hectares of farmlands in Borno, Adamawa, Yobe and Gombe states.

According to the Feed the Future Nigeria Rural Resilience Activity (RRA), 299 smallholder farmers supported by the USAID-funded RRA are qualified to receive the insurance payout claims.

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The Chief Party of the RRA, Margarita Aswani said the payout will supplement the low yields recorded by farmers in the wet season due to the flooding that led to the massive destruction of farmlands in the North East.

She said farmers in Gombe and Yobe states, who acquired farmers’ insurance between July and December 2022, had received their payout claims last week, “While eligible participants in Borno and Adamawa states will receive their payout this week.

“For us, it’s about helping our participants to build resilience to economic and climatic shocks like flooding and drought.”

Mercy Corps Nigeria’s Country Director, Mr Ndubisi Anyanwu said the payout would reduce the losses of participants who lost part of their yield to flood and drought and prepare them for the next wet season.

He explained that each of the smallholder farmers from the four states was eligible to receive between N15,000 and N30,000 based on the type of crop and insurance policy.

Our correspondent reports that the Rural Resilience Activity has trained 15,181 farmers on the benefits of insurance, while 592 have enrolled in one form of insurance or the other.