Presentation Fin4Ag S24 by Bernard Pacher

1. © 2014 by Adcon Telemetry GmbH
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»Climate-Smart Agriculture: Weather Data
for
Index Insurance, enhanced efficiency and
improved food securityFin4AG, Nairobi, 2014 © 2014 by Adcon Telemetry
GmbH

2. © 2014 by Adcon Telemetry GmbH
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3. © 2014 by Adcon Telemetry GmbH
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» - Limited access to credit for the purchase of
- Seeds of good quality,
- Fertilizer,
- Other agrochemicals and inputs
- Limited access to markets to sell crop at adequate pricing
- Limited access to good advisory services
- Weather risks make harvest unpredictable
- But: harvest = security for credit - no secured harvest = no credit !
What are the major problems of small holder farmers?
What‘s needed? Relevant - Accurate - Real-time WEATHER DATA

4. © 2014 by Adcon Telemetry GmbH
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» Weather data is the key to everything:
- Seeding
- Crop Development
- Pathogen Development (consulting!!)
- Irrigation Management
- Harvesting
- Insurance / Micro-Credit through insurance coverage
WEATHER DATA

5. © 2014 by Adcon Telemetry GmbH
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» Weather data can help to:
- Reduce pesticide and fungicide application by 50% +
more
- Reduce consumption of water and energy for
irrigation
- Reduce usage of fertilizer through proper irrigation
- Increase quantity and quality of crop
- Provide neutral data for the assessment of weather
risks
WEATHER DATA

6. © 2014 by Adcon Telemetry GmbH
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» The situation in Africa:
The average African
Country operates less
automatic agro-
meteorological stations
WEATHER DATA

7. © 2014 by Adcon Telemetry GmbH
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» What do they all have in common?
-They start with a little pilot
-The are chronically underfunded
-There is no long-term plan
-They hardly ever go to scale
-After the project ends they fall apart
WEATHER STATION PROJECTS

8. © 2014 by Adcon Telemetry GmbH
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» Rural areas are perceived to be risky!
- Damage events occur frequently.
- Damage events frequently hit many farmers in large areas.
- Historic data is often missing.
- Adequate risk assessment is difficult
- Marketing in sparsely populated areas is expensive and difficult
- Individual damage assessment is expensive.
-Insurance is thus only available to large scale,
high value farming operations
Why is getting insurance difficult?

9. © 2014 by Adcon Telemetry GmbH
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» What is Index Insurance?
-The concept dates back to the late 1940ies (Halcrow)
-Index Insurance uses indices correlated to events influencing yield, such as
- Precipitation, drought, flood, hail, hurricanes
-Events need to be monitored regionally, e.g. by a weather station
-Events within a monitored area lead to payouts, even without individual
damage assessment
-Verifiable monitoring allows reinsurance, thus dispersal of risk.
Weather Index Insurance

10. © 2014 by Adcon Telemetry GmbH
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» - Development of proper indices that correlate well with agricultural
loss is very difficult.
- Development of proper premiums and payout levels is as difficult: what‘s
the right correlation between premium, payout and actual loss?
- What shall be insured? Inputs? Outputs? Both?
- How can the index be established?
• Historic meteorological records are needed (~20 years)
• Historic satellite images allow some approximation
- How can the index be verified?
• Local weather stations in a dense network are needed
• How to correlate remote data (satellite images) with ground events?
The difficulties of Index Insurance

11. © 2014 by Adcon Telemetry GmbH
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Kilimo Salama, Kenya (SFSA)
HARITA, Ethiopia (WFP)
Senegal (WFP)
Ghana (GIZ)
Zimbabwe (EcoFARMER)
Weather Index Insurance in Africa

12. © 2014 by Adcon Telemetry GmbH
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Joint project of INIFAP / SAGARPA, and
COFUPRO, the Growers Organization
Network size: > 1.000 Adcon ETo stations
> 300 Adcon soil moisture stations
Website: http://clima.inifap.gob.mx – all data online free of charge!
Purpose: yield prediction, disease advice, irrigation optimization
Index Insurance: since 2009 250 stations are also
used for index insurance
Weather Index Insurance in Mexico

13. © 2014 by Adcon Telemetry GmbH
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» REFERENCES – The Who is Who of Adcon Users

14. © 2014 by Adcon Telemetry GmbH
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» WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE?
Develop a plan for the whole country
Go to scale right away
Think long term – think 15 to 20 years
Provide adequate funding for the long term
Think multi-purpose: - index insurance & micro-finance
- disease and irrigation consulting
- traceability for international markets
- Share data with other interested parties
ACTION PLAN

15. © 2014 by Adcon Telemetry GmbH
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- Name a project CHAMPION
- Build a solid IT environment
- Build a solid weather station network
- Train technical staff on operation & maintenance
- Provide agronomical training to extension officers
- Distribute as much information to as many people as
possible!
ACTION PLAN

16. © 2014 by Adcon Telemetry GmbH
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!