By Mohammed Kandi
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has said that the Federal Government would launch national crop insurance for farmers by 2015.
Adesina made this known recently in Abuja, at a workshop on water management solutions for flood-recession and dry season agriculture in Nigeria.
According to him, “Our goal is to insure no less than 10 million farmers. We will also design and implement a flood disaster payment policy that will protect farmers, communities and states from economic losses due to floods.”
Meanwhile, the Managing Director of Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC), Bode Opadokun, said only five per cent of Nigerian farmers have access to agricultural insurance.
Opadokun, who was quoting from the 2014 World Bank Report, said the level of penetration of agricultural insurance in the country is very low.
He also said that Nigeria does not have reliable statistics that captures the exact number of farmers under insurance cover, but further informed that, NAIC over the years has registered over 200,000 farmers.
According to Opadokun, ‘’the statistics of farmers would be determined following the introduction of the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme of the Federal Government and the on-going verification
of the registered farmers being carried out by NAIC in collaboration with Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Cellulant.’’
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