Making crop insurance work for small-scale farmers: a review of recent evidence

Around the world, small-scale farmers face greater vulnerability to shocks such as extreme weather events and financial crises.

Building the resilience of such farmers — their ability to cope with and mitigate the effects of shocks — is essential not just to ensure their livelihoods, but also to secure the reliability of the supply chains of which they are a part.

While small-scale farmers already use various strategies to manage risk, insurance is gaining attention as a solution. However, globally, insurance coverage of these farmers is limited.

The barriers to insurance for them are numerous and there are also specific technical and logistical challenges associated with delivering insurance products to small-scale farmers. Women small-scale farmers also face particular gendered challenges in accessing insurance and other financial services.

This paper explores good practice in designing and implementing crop insurance for and with small-scale farmers, drawing on analysis of existing academic and grey literature.