Presentation at CTA Workshop on “Climate Change Solutions that Work for farmers”: Agricultural Insurance as a Tool for Adaptation to Climate Change in Mauritius (by Bhanooduth Lalljee)

1. Agricultural Insurance as a
Tool for Adaptation to
Climate Change
Prof B. Lalljee and Prof. S. Facknath
Faculty of Agriculture
University of Mauritius
Reduit, Mauritius

2. What is the specific climate change
challenge being addressed in the case
study?
The crops losses resulting from extreme events (cyclones, drought,
flooding, pest/disease outbreaks).
Losses can be in the form of :
total destruction of the crop,
decrease in sugar content of sugarcane
inability of fishermen to go fishing.
The loss in revenue/ livelihood of farmers and fishers.
The possibility of farmers abandoning their lands.

3. How does the practice/tool/policy help
farmers to address the challenges?
By ensuring financial support to help the farmer in the face of
losses due to extreme weather events
By providing farm inputs, such as compost, seeds, etc. to help
the farmers get back on his feet after major loss due to
extreme events.

4. What were the processes that led to the
development of the practice, tool or policy?
What triggered its development?
Extreme cyclonic events led to total devastation of the main crop, i.e.
sugarcane.
Farmers were penniless and there were food security issues, since
sugar was the main foreign exchange earners and the mainstay of the
economy (Sugar exports under the Commonwealth Agreement which
later became the Lome Convention).
Sugar production was made a controlled product and farmers
obligatorily had to register with the Government for their sugarcane to
be processed by the millers under the Cane Millers Arbitration Control
Act.

5. Key institutions/champions involved in
its development?
Ministry of Agriculture
Ministry of Finance
The Mauritius Sugar Industry Research Institute
Cane Millers Arbitration Control Board
Food and agricultural Research Institute
Small Farmers Development Fund.

6. How widely has the practice, tool or policy
been adopted e.g. current number of
farmers or size of area, effectiveness?
Trend in the level of adoption and why?
It is a legal requirement and hence obligatory for sugarcane producers.
Every year they have to register with the Sugar Insurance Fund Board
(SIFN) and also sign a contract with the millers that they will be sending
their cane to them.
Sugarcane from one region cannot be milled in another region (except
for force majeur).
In case of non-sugar farmers, it is optional. However 90% of the
farmers are registered and hence have adopted this measure.

7. Impacts: positive or negative on farmers?
Changes increase food production in the face
of climate change? unplanned effects (positive
or negative)?Impacts have been and continue to be very positive in the sugar sector,
and has enabled the survival of this sector, in the face of changing
climate.
Is also promising in the non-sugar sector.
Unplanned effects:
(i)The insurance fund has been managed so well and has yield so much
profit over the years, that the Govt decided that this year and the next
farmers do not need to pay premiums, but continue to be insured
along the same lines.
(ii)By compensating in terms of compost and seed rather than cash,
Govt is encouraging sustainable agriculture.

8. Thank you for your attention !