Salaam Takaful, Syngenta Pakistan pilot crop insurance programme in Punjab

ISLAMABAD: Salaam Takaful Limited in collaboration with Syngenta Pakistan Limited has piloted a weather and parametric index-based crop insurance programme in Arifwala and Vehari regions of the Punjab.

The SECP’s report on crop insurance said the Takaful company in collaboration with Syngenta Pakistan Limited, a leading agriculture innovation and technology company that provides crop protection, biologicals, seeds, crop-enhancement products, and digital services has piloted this crop insurance programme.

The company’s pricing strategy, which is customizable and flexible, has attracted a wide range of customers. The company has identified several challenges, including affordability, awareness, communication, trust and technology.

The SECP report added that the Habib Bank Limited (HBL), The Bank of Punjab (BoP) and TPL Insurance Ltd had entered into a strategic partnership for the pilot testing of the Area Yield Index Insurance (AYII) product, proposed by Pakistan Agriculture Coalition (PAC) with PULA (Third Party Administrator) as implementation partner & SCOR as global reinsurer. Under the product, farmers availing crop production loans from HBL and BoP in pilot districts will be provided yield insurance coverage bundled with their loan product.

The product insures the crop production risks against climatic abnormalities including windstorm, frost, excessive rainfall, heatwave, hail, flood, drought, pest and diseases.

The product insures farmers without any payout limitations or waiting for calamity declaration from Government agencies.

The pilot project started with wheat and rice crops in four districts i.e. Pakpattan, Gujranwala, Hafizabad and Sheikhupura of the Punjab.

The crop yield was insured against a pre-set average benchmark yield on the basis of historical data and the insurance claim will trigger if average farm yield is below 70 percent of the threshold 8.13.

The crop yield measured through crop cutting experiments carried out by international partners - PULA. The special feature of scheme is that the loss of production estimated on a scientific basis instead of the traditional method, the SECP report added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023