Actualidad

Microinsurance for farmers and integrated risk management in Central America and the Dominican Republic

The region of Central America and the Dominican Republic is exposed to frequent climate phenomena that have a seriously adverse impact on their farming industry. Measures must be adopted to mitigate and avoid risks. However, the development of insurance and microinsurance products for farmers, a basic instrument of prevention, is still not where it should be. In other countries in Latin America, such as Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico and Peru, significant progress has been made in this area, above all with insurance based on climate indexes (indexed insurance products) for small- and medium-scale farmers.

The document sets the context in which the farming industry operates throughout the Central America and Dominican Republic region. Secondly, it analyses the climate risks that this region faces and strategies that have been implemented to manage the risks. Finally, considering the high exposure to such phenomena, the vulnerability of the actors and the still incipient development of insurance and microinsurance products for farmers, it gives a set of recommendations to promote such products, both for indexed and non-indexed policies, to back up other risk management strategies.