Index based agricultural insurance and resilience of family farming

Index-based insurance is a recent development in West Africa, where it is currently in the pilot phase in Benin, Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Senegal, spearheaded by the World Bank and other partners. This study assessed the contribution of this instrument to strengthening the resilience of family farms. It reveals that the innovation has been well adopted, although it remains largely inaccessible to small, vulnerable farms. The innovation has had positive knock-on effects in terms of improving agricultural financing, promoting good agricultural practices, and increasing crop productivity. Under the umbrella of insurance, access to agricultural credit has improved significantly, which has encouraged investment in productive capital. The area under cultivation in this context has increased by 158.33% and productivity has improved by 127% after three years. These agricultural performances have had positive effects on access to food for the targeted farming households. However, government intervention is essential to support the growth of this development tool.