Asia: Partnering with govts, academia and NGOs to provide agriculture insurance
Source: Asia Insurance Review | Aug 2016
Agriculture is booming in Asia, with research and innovation on the rise. Today, farming has taken on new forms with higher crop values, innovative products, cost-effective business models, new distribution channels and advanced technologies.
However, agriculture is also the sector that is extremely sensitive to Nat CATs, which hit Asia the hardest in 2015, a year where the world broke an unwanted record of experiencing close to 200 of these disasters. Uninsured losses continue to run high, and it remains an ongoing challenge for insurers to convince the “unpersuaded unprotected” farming community of the benefits of insurance, despite agriculture being a business that is subject to extreme volatility and severity of damages when Nat CATs do occur.
In a recent roundtable discussion hosted by Asia Insurance Review, insurers agreed that there is still much the industry can improve on in how they communicate the value of insurance to the still relatively untapped agricultural sector. In addition, the industry can also better meet the sector’s needs in the provision and distribution of products through engaging in partnerships with government, academia and NGOs, new technology and innovation and improvements in data collection and modelling.
The 3rd Asia Agriculture Insurance Conference will expand further on these themes by looking at risk management solutions for agriculture, claims and loss handling and risk modelling amongst others. The conference will take place from 20-21 September 2016 in Singapore.