Agriculture-Kenya - While most parts of the country are staring at a drought because of expected poor rains, farmers in Kitale are worried of too much rain. Residents still remember how excess rains destroyed their harvests last year. "It was a total loss for me," says Rebecca Bowen, a 53-year-old agricultural officer and a maize farmer. The meteorological department last week confirmed that while rains would be depressed across the country, Western Kenya and Rift Valley highlands may still receive above normal rains. Now farmers in Kitale and neighbouring areas are turning to crop insurance so that they do not lose everything. In case of extreme weather, they will be compensated for their investments in seed, fertiliser and other inputs. "I will never experience total loss come rain or drought," says Bowen. Her family is among those enrolling for the insurance programme called Kilimo Salama Plus.

With more than 12,000 farmers on board, this rapidly expanding, Kenyan-based programme is now touted as Africa's biggest. It is run by UAP Insurance, Syngenta Foundation - an arm of Syngenta, the Swiss-based agritech firm - and Safaricom.

Kitale is a unique entrant into the programme. Farmers in other regions have joined because they lose crops to droughts but those in Kitale, widely regarded as Kenya's breadbasket, are having too much, destructive rains.

There are 12,000 farmers in Kilimo Salama Plus in Nyanza, Busia, Eldoret, Nanyuki, Embu and now Kitale."We should be able to reach 50,000 farmers this year and provide far more insurance options," says Marco Ferroni, director of Syngenta Foundation who attended the Kitale launch two weeks ago.

Farmers join the insurance scheme through local agro-dealers. The registration details are then sent through an automated SMS programme on Safaricom lines.

Every time the farmers buy seeds, fertiliser or other inputs from the authorised dealers, they pay an extra five per cent in addition to the price. This extra cost is the insurance premium. That translates to about Sh9 to insure a one-kilogramme bag of higher-yielding maize seed, and Sh25 shillings to insure a 10-kilogramme bag of fertiliser. The farmers are paid back the entire cost of inputs if their crops fail because of drought or floods.

Syngenta says payouts are determined by data collected through 30 solar-powered weather stations installed in the targeted regions and capable of broadcasting regular weather conditions near individual farms.

When data from a particular station points toward a drought or other extreme weather including excessive rains, all farmers registered with that station automatically receive payouts via Mpesa. "It is exciting to see how the rapid uptake of mobile phone technology in Kenya is being used to deal with the weather uncertainties that are a major cause of food insecurity among some Kenyan families," says Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore in a statement.Kilimo Salama Plus is supported by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the European Commission.

In North Rift, farmers have rushed to register complaining fertiliser has become too expensive. Says Juma Weruga, a farmer in Lugari district: "We are also getting it late when we have already planted meaning it will not be of much use to us."

Agriculture Secretary Dr Wilson Songa welcomes the project, saying small-scale farmers produce 75 per cent of Kenya's agricultural output. "Agricultural insurance is particularly important in Kenya and elsewhere in Africa today as extreme weather patterns generated by climate change are introducing greater volatility to food production and food prices," he said in Kitale.

He says farmers should involve agricultural officers at the farm level to test their soil fertility levels and determine which fertilisers they should use."We are in the process of importing 105,000 metric tonnes worth Sh3.8 billion and farmers will receive subsidy to access it," he assured.

The insurance project was started in 2009 on a pilot basis in Laikipia, where 200 farmers purchased insurance for seeds and herbicides, and, after the drought, received compensation for 80 per cent of their investment.

Last year, another 540 farmers in Siakago and South Nyanza received their payouts, while another 600 will be paid anytime.Jennifer Mbiro, a farmer from Embu, warns the weather has become unpredictable nowadays. "We've been losing crops to erratic rains. Embu doesn't rain a lot nowadays," she says."We were paid last year so we did not lose everything. It seems we will be paid again this year because it is really dry."

In their forecast last week, the meteorology department said the long rains, which have already begun in some areas, will cease early in May in most places and will be accompanied by dry spells.

Met said farmers should liaise with the Ministry of Agriculture to determine which drought-tolerant crops they should plant."Rainfall distribution is expected to be generally poor in most parts of the country with the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands being hardest hit. Long dry spells are likely to occur during the season," said met director Dr Joseph Mukabana.

UAP feels farmers should not take chances. Managing Director James Wambugu says they have expanded the array of crops that farmers can insure to include maize, wheat, beans and sorghum."It also follows our drive to simplify insurance and in the process expand access to more farmers," he adds.

According to Syngenta, Kilimo Salama Plus has become the largest agricultural insurance programme in Africa and the first to use mobile phone technology for payments to rural farmers.

While crop insurance is common in developed countries, it has largely been unavailable to farmers in developing countries partly because administering such a programme is expensive. It ideally should involve field inspections and follow-up visits to confirm damage, which may be cost effective for large farms but uneconomical for small scattered farms.

Kilimo Salama has so far successfully reduced these costs by using cost-effective, automated weather stations instead of farm visits to determine payouts. The use of automated Safaricom SMS service has also helped since the cost of short messaging system has gone down.

John Muchangi

Nairobi Star/17/03/2011