Smallholder farmers lack access to agricultural insurance — ActionAid

A new scorecard conducted by ActionAid Nigeria to review farmers’ access to agricultural insurance services in the country has revealed that smallholder women farmers have extreme low access to insurance services in the last five years. 

The ActionAid Programme Officer on Agriculture, Azubuike Nwokoye, during presentation of the scorecard, in Abuja, yesterday, lamented that access to agricultural insurance services over the years has remained low, especially for smallholder women farmers, adding that budget allocations and releases still remain very low also.

The report conducted between 2014 and 2018, also observed low budgetary allocation and release to the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Commission (NAiC).

Nwokoye stressed the need for NAiC to work on its policy to increase insurance coverage, such that it would provide compensation for farmers affected by cattle rustling.

This, according to him, would assist in reducing farmers/ herders ßcrisis in the country.