Togo pumps $1M into insurance products for local farmers

Agriculture

Thursday, 18 January 2024 17:17

Togo pumps $1M into insurance products for local farmers

(Togo First) - The government of Togo recently injected $1 million into a new sovereign insurance subscription for local farmers. The package covers the 2023-2024 agricultural campaign and includes a $500,000 grant from the African Development Bank (AfDB).

The new insurance deal was inked with African Risk Capacity (ARC), the pan-African risk management mutual. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, it will enable Togolese farmers to receive "emergency support in the event of extreme weather events and natural disasters, such as drought, floods, tropical cyclones, epizootics, locust invasions."

Every year since 2019, Togo has subscribed to the same policy to help curb the negative impacts of droughts and rains on farmers’ activities. The corresponding amounts were $499,924, $500,000, $994,625, and $1,000,000 in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022, respectively.

In 2022-2023, the ARC provided Togo with $2.5 million in the same framework. At the beginning of that period, the country had recorded multiple pockets of drought which had impaired crop production.

The government put the number of farmers severely hit by the drought at 69,444 nationwide–including 59,167 farmers in the Savanes region, and 6,233 and 4044 in the Kara and Central regions, respectively.

Esaïe Edoh

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