Projects

Bundling flood insurance and post-flood recovery to agriculture in improving smallholder livelihoods in South Asia

Current
Urban wetlands, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Photo: Samurdhi Ranasinghe (IWMI)

Seasonal weather fluctuations directly and dramatically shape rural household welfare in developing countries. With climate projections of more severe and more frequent extreme weather events, this vulnerability will likely remain central to global poverty concerns and policy debates for the coming decades. The ongoing IWMI lead Index-based flood insurance (IBFI) products represent a promising and exciting innovation that could allow the benefits of insurance to protect the climate-related risks that vulnerable rural smallholder farmers. IBFI was successfully pilot in Bihar (India) that integrates hi-tech modeling and satellite data to predetermine flood threshold for speedy compensation to support low-income, flood-prone communities. This project will expand by bundling flood insurance and post-flood recovery to agriculture, which turns out to be complementarity that makes bundling potentially interesting among smallholder farmers. A bundled crop specific post-flood management options product can offer monotonic benefits as flood severity increases to cover low to moderate flood events i.e. depth and duration, which can substantially reduce the actuarially fair premium associated with the flood insurance. The project in partnership with seed companies will introduce flood-resistant seed varieties in the areas crop damage by floods for rapid agriculture production before moving to next crop season. The project will develop business model among public-private sector and policy briefing to government agencies for substantial investments in such innovations to improve smallholder farmers? adaptive capacity in the face of climate change, with an emphasis on improving livelihoods for women and the youth.

Project Activities

Policy brief to high-level decision-makers on the project scope in DRR and agriculture development

Project inception workshop and stakeholder consultation to discuss work plan activities and technical activities.

Knowledge management and communication strategy discussion with IWMI and CCAFS

To develop scaling toolbox of combined remote sensing data, flood model and crop growth model, which support south-south learning platform and agricultural insurance.

Capacity building program on the use of earth observation data and flood insurance in FRM as part of the Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction (Priority 3 - Financial resilience)

Global desk review on the post-flood recovery in agriculture in flood risk management

Develop combined SAR and flood model for scaling up flood insurance products in South Asia. The wide-range of products will be tested with national stakeholders, insurance industry for wider acceptability and business models for sustainability within the scope of PMFBY scheme in India and elsewhere in South Asia.

A scientific approach in mapping post-flood recovery in agriculture for improved CCA and building resilience

Pilot case studies in the implementation of post-flood recovery strategy including field laboratory analysis and monitoring of improved crop production and possible recommendation of land use policy in flood-prone region. Specific activities to post-food recovery are (i) identify the flood occurrence time, duration-depth of flood water submergence to make the flood-affected land ready for cultivation and help the farmers recover from the loss caused by flood event (ii) Efficient utilization of available natural resources for raising alternate crops (iii) compliment the food insurance policies by enhancing the resilience of the agricultural system as a whole. The study will carry out post-flood management plan to enhance the flood resilience by developing suitable contingency crop plans for flood events will be improved at sub-district level with detail field datasets, use of earth observation data, stakeholders consultation and implement pilot case studies in the field to draw appropriate policy measures.

Peer-reviewed research articles related to flood insurance and post-flood recovery

Business model on the bundled flood insurance and post-flood recovery in agriculture for flood resilience among public-private partnership

Socio-economic assessment and institutional analysis in target states in SA for policy recommendation

Project Deliverables

2019