Kenya News Agency reports on the recent workshop on innovation in Agricultural Risk Management in Kenya, quoting Peter Owoko, the Director of Agriculture Policy Research and Regulations at the Ministry of Agriculture, who underscored the need for innovations in product development and distribution.
In the last three years, several Kenyan and international organizations have been collaborating on crop insurance research under the Picture-Based Insurance (PBI) project. The partners, including Kenya Agricultural Livestock and Research Organization (KALRO), Agriculture and Climate Risk Enterprise (ACRE) Africa, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and Wageningen University & Research (WUR), have been engaging with over 7000 farmers using Digital Platform To Insure Crops.
Carol Waweru of IFPRI said the PBI concept was first piloted in India before spreading to Ethiopia, Rwanda, and now Kenya. The picture-based insurance offering to farmers in Kenya includes complimentary risk management strategies such as advisory services through KALRO and drought-tolerant seeds, Waweru explained.