In an effort to bolster climate-resistant agriculture and enhance food security, agricultural insurance leaders PULA, Leadway Assurance, Heifer International, and AFEX disbursed N110 million in insurance claims to 1,380 farmers affected by ginger blight disease in Kaduna State. The payout ceremony took place during the 2023 Wet Season Insurance Claims Pay-out Ceremony for AFEX Farmers in Abuja.
At the event, PULA, an agricultural insurance and technology company providing comprehensive solutions for smallholder farmers, announced that over 15.4 million farmers have been covered under its agricultural insurance protection scheme. The recipients had suffered significant losses due to ginger blight, also known as ginger tuber rot disease, during the previous season in Kaduna State.
Pula Advisors AG, a leading Swiss insurtech company registered in several African countries, has provided climate insurance to 16 million smallholder farmers since 2015. During the ceremony, Chukwuma Kalu, PULA’s Commercial Manager for Anglophone West Africa, revealed that the payments to the 1,138 farmers marked the beginning of the 2023 wet season insurance claims.
The insurance payout is a key component of the “Naija Unlock Signature Program,” coordinated by Heifer in partnership with AFEX and a network of smallholder farmers growing rice, maize, soybeans, and ginger in Niger, Kaduna, Jigawa, Plateau, and Kebbi States. Kalu highlighted that Leadway Assurance, the lead insurer for the program, facilitated the N110 million payout to AFEX on behalf of ginger farmers in Kaduna State who experienced total harvest losses due to the disease outbreak.
Kalu emphasized that 1,138 ginger farmers were verified for compensation due to their harvest losses. He noted that the inclusion of insurance in the farming program is crucial to protecting farmers’ investments against crop or harvest failures caused by pests, diseases, and climate change.
“The partnership is dedicated to addressing climate-induced challenges in the agricultural sector,” Kalu stated. “This ensures smallholder farmers’ confidence is strengthened, food production is secured, and the resilience of food systems is reinforced, supporting the government’s efforts to tackle food security challenges. We achieve this by ensuring that farmers’ claims are promptly verified, catalogued, and processed whenever they suffer from harvest losses.”
