Insurance companies should consider group insurance: Farmers
Staff Writer
Insurance companies in Zimbabwe should consider offering group insurance to smallholder farmers to increase uptake of agricultural insurance, Insurance 24 has learned.
This comes as agricultural insurance uptake, especially for smallholder farmers, has remained low despite concerted efforts to increase it.
Farming activities are often exposed to various risks, such as unpredictable weather patterns, pests, diseases, fires, and market fluctuations, which can lead to crop failures, income losses, and economic instability. Agricultural insurance has often come in handy.
However, farmers have been sceptical for various reasons, ranging from affordability to a to a lack of knowledge.
Federation of Farmers Unions President Bright Bvukumbwe said in an interview that farmers have often fallen victim to unreliable insurance companies and have also been victims of steep charges that were beyond the reach of many.
He said group insurance would make it affordable and give assurance of these issues other than dealing with them individually.
“The smallholder farmers are easier taken in as group insurance because they don’t have any money, and it’s better to have one, two, or three hectares than to have ten farmers,” he said.
“They are not offering group insurance to farmers, but that will then bring transparency and accountability, because if they have 10 farmers, they would go down and further split the farmers up,” said Bvukumbwe.
He noted that insurance claims should be paid on merit after a thorough assessment.
He added that in the past, farmers have fallen victim to some unregistered insurance companies that fleeced them of their hard-earned cash.
He urged farmers to rely on reputable insurance companies to avoid complications.
“Because I know that many farmers don’t have the means to ensure that they have the correct harvest and value.
“So, I would like to encourage the tobacco farmers to look at reputable insurance and see if it’s the right thing to do. So that they don’t have to secure themselves.
So we are saying they should avoid some fly-by-night insurers, and they should come to the farmer unions and ask for a list of which insurers to pay; even if it doesn’t mean that you are a member of the union, we just represent farmers,” he said.
