Public and private partners explore solutions to reduce financial risks of climate change

GIZ & Swiss Re workshop with Asian government representatives in Jakarta

More than 90 representatives from eleven Asian countries participated in an executive consultation forum and capacity building seminar in Indonesia to learn and share their experiences on mechanisms how to deal with financial risks resulting from climate change.

Mr. Suriyan Vichitlekarn (left) – Regional Project Director of BRIA (Better Rice Initiative Asia) moderates a session with Dr. Marqueza Reyes (ASEAN DRFIP), Dr. Aryusri Kumbunlue, Thai Office for Insurance Commission, Norman Cajucom (PCIC, Philippines) (from left).

The event was organized by the “Strategic Alliance on Climate Risk Transfer Solutions” (Strategic Alliance) which is a Public-Private-Partnership project between GIZ and the international reinsurer Swiss Re with the objective to improve access to smart climate risk transfer solutions at sovereign and sub- sovereign level for selected Asian and African governments. It was the first of its kind in the Asian region organized by the two partners and took place between 17 and 21 October in Jakarta.

Asia is one of the most disaster-prone areas in the world has experienced the highest number of natural disasters worldwide in the last 115 years. Since these damages have strong peaks over the years resulting in large economic, social and financial losses, the question arises how states can financially deal with those very strong disasters.

In his keynote presentation Dr. Alexander Jaeger, the Project leader of the Strategic Alliance at GIZ, emphasized that the financial impact of climate change represents a growing financial burden for societies across Asia and that climate risk transfer solutions such as insurance is one promising option how governments can address this worrying situation.

The overall objective of the event, therefore, was to enhance the understanding of government officials on sovereign risk financing and risk transfer mechanisms with regard to climate change risks as well as to increase their technical capacities. Participants represented a wide variety of government institutions (e.g. Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Finance), the private sector (e.g. insurance companies) and development partners (e.g. ASEAN and the World Bank), which further increased learning and knowledge sharing.

Members of ASEAN Sustainable Agrifood Systems (ASEAN SAS), Better Rice Initiative Asia (BRIA) and Remote Sensing-based Information and Insurance for Crops in Emerging Economies (RIICE) teams supported the organization and facilitation of the workshop as their field of work and the partners they cooperate with are strongly linked with the participating audience.

Mr. Suriyan Vichitlekarn, Regional Project Director of BRIA moderated the whole event. Ms. Susan Gille, Project Manager of RIICE facilitated a group work session on Developing a Sovereign Climate Risk Financing Strategy in which country groups with participants from different government institutions jointly work on their specific country issues, looked at existing gaps and developed ideas how to strengthen the disaster risk insurance framework in their countries.

The RIICE project has supported partner countries in Southeast Asia in developing and operating an innovative remote sensing technology which enables them to regularly monitor their rice production and to assess damages in case of natural disasters such as typhoons, floods and droughts. The European Space Agency’s Sentinel radar satellites are the backbone of the RIICE technology. This risk management tool enables policy makers to better respond to the impacts of natural catastrophes in particular when it is embedded in new or existing crop insurance programmes. In 2016/17 the first crop insurance pilot which integrates satellite-derived information is conducted under the umbrella of RIICE.

The activities of the RIICE project complement the goal of the “Strategic Alliance on Sovereign Climate Risk Transfer’s”: Providing governments with smart climate risk transfer solutions. RIICE can play an important part in an integrated disaster risk management approach, consisting of risk identification, assessment, prevention and mitigation and adaptation (risk transfer) by providing the underlying technological backbone. For the future, RIICE intends to strengthen its collaboration with the “Strategic Alliance on Sovereign Climate Risk Transfer” and Swiss Re in Southeast Asia.

Further information:

https://jakarta-2016.climate-risk-insurance.org/
GIZ Sector Programme “Global Initiative for Access to Insurance”: Innovations and emerging trends in agricultural insurance
GIZ Publication Database
Swiss Re Library

Ms. Susan Gille, RIICE Project Manager, presents in a market place session on regional activities and international support on disaster risk insurance solutions.

By Benedikt Lemnitzer, Remote Sensing-based Information and Insurance for Crops in Emerging Economies (RIICE)

17/08/201607/08/2017

Channelling climate information services to rice farmers in Indonesia

By: Shinta Purnama Sarie

Climate change challenges among rice farmers in Indonesia

Rice has been feeding the Southeast Asian region’s population for well over 4,000 years. In Indonesia alone, it is the staple food of its 557 million inhabitants. The country is endowed with a tropical climate which provides ideal conditions for rice cultivation. Despite the steady increase in rice production and productivity, the likewise increase in extreme weather events and other climate change-related threats make rice cultivation increasingly risky for the 37.75 million smallholder rice farmers in Indonesia. According to the survey to 251 farmers in Indonesia, sixty nine percent (69%) farmers agree that the main challenge in cultivating rice is pests and diseases, followed by extreme and unpredictable weather, thirty one percent (31%). According to various published studies, climate change also participates in spreading or changing the life cycle of pest and diseases. 1

Therefore, climate information and related agronomic advisory services are needed as an approach to support rice farmers in making the best management decisions on their farms and increase their adaptive capacities to climate change.

How farmers make farming decisions to address climate change

As early as 3000 BCE, rice has already been being cultivated. In Indonesia, the seedling calendar based on weather information is the main consideration before planting due to the country’s dependence on rainfall. With regard to their use of the seedling calendar, 56% of farmers said that it has been recommended by their farmer friend; 21% farmers said that it’s through government intervention; and 10% said they base it on current weather forecast. After the planting time is set, farmers begin to cultivate with several steps to follow, starting from choosing seed varieties and quality, land preparation, seedling.

To grow rice, farmers have to know when to grow it by selecting the seed varieties and quality that will suit their condition. According to the survey, forty two percent (42%) farmers select their seeds based on the information that their older generation passed; while thirty four percent (34%) select their seeds based on their farmer friend’s recommendation.
After the seed is selected, farmers prepare the land, which involves plowing and harrowing to ‘till’ or dig-up, mix and level the soil. There are two choices on how farmers plant once the land is well prepared – transplanting and direct seedling.3 Eighty one percent (81%) of farmers plant the rice by transplanting while the remaining nineteen percent (19%) plant by direct seedling.

Figure 1. Water system in rice farming

Beyond rice harvest, farmers need to pay attention to pests and diseases and water shortage in their field. Fifty five percent (55%) of farmers have access to the local irrigation system; while thirty one percent (31%) fully depend on rainfall for irrigating their farms. This conveys that most of the farmers who participated in the survey are smallholder rice farmers that have well-developed irrigation. There is no denying that farmers who depend on rainfall are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

The role of rice as a main food staple has now extended to issues concerning food security, society, and economy in Indonesia due to the effects of climate change. Only seventeen point five percent (17,5%) farmers plant alternative crops, mainly tomatoes and corn. Alternative plants will give substitutive income when weather is unreliable or even additional income to farmers. The need of a new technique in rice cultivation related to dealing with such is emerging. However, some farmers still have not embraced this change and continuously rely on traditional practices. While some of these are still useful, farmers need new and up-to-date information in making farming decisions as the problem now is getting more complex with climate change

Recommendations in channeling climate information to rice farmers

Since awareness to climate change is present, channeling climate information to farmers on how to cultivate rice while at the same time adapting to climate change has been less difficult. The survey reveals that farmers are aware of the importance of climate or weather information but are having difficulties accessing it. Moreover, fifty eight percent (58%) of the farmers believe weather information is important; fifty three (53%) of farmers do not have the access; sixty nine percent (69%) farmers do not have access to knowledge in dealing with extreme weather or climate change; and ninety eight percent (98%) agree that the knowledge on how to deal with it is important.

Table 1 shows existing modes of communication in disseminating climate information such as weather forecast as well as agriculture knowledge on how to adapt to climate change. In terms of weather forecast, most farmers twenty eight percent (28%) easily get access such information both from Indonesian Agency for Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysics (BMKG) and TV; followed by through farmer friends, twenty seven percent (27%). When it comes obtaining information related to extreme weather events, twenty eight percent (28%) majority of farmers trust extension agents. As previously mentioned, knowledge from farmers friend is the main consideration of thirty four percent (34%) of farmers in making farming decisions. For adapting new agriculture knowledge, farmers also trust information from farmer friend. From this background, the survey suggests maximizing the role of farmer-to-farmer extension in circulating climate information and knowledge to influence farming decision, particularly in tackling climate change.

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The survey was taken by BASF and ASEAN-German Programme on Response to Climate Change in Agriculture and Forestry (GAP-CC). GAP-CC is comprised of two projects designed to improve the framework conditions for sustainable agriculture and forestry in ASEAN Member States: FOR-CC project that promoting increased resilience to climate change in ASEAN Member States through the dissemination of climate smart agriculture practices and the ASEAN Sustainable Agrifood Systems project (ASEAN SAS), through the Better Rice Initiative Asia (BRIA) that developing and disseminating best practices in rice production to improve farmer’s incomes and nutrition while reducing externalities on the environment. Total of farmers who participate is 251 farmers. 61% farmers participating in the survey are from Java islands, which is the main rice growing region of the country. The majority of them is male farmers aged between 31—50 years old. 50% farmers have a piece of rice field as much as 0.1—1 hectares. 57% farmers are able to yield as much as 7—10 ton/hectares.

1 D. O. Manzanilla, T. R. Paris, G. V. Vergara, A. M. Ismail, S. Pandey, R. V. Labios, G. T. Tatlonghari, R. D. Acda and T. T. N. Chi, “Submergence Risks and Farmers’ Preferences: Implications for Breeding Sub1 Rice in Southeast Asia,” Agricultural Systems, Vol. 104, 2011, pp. 335- 347. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2010.12.005

11/07/201610/07/2017

A study in Cambodia finds organic contract farming raises income of smallholders by as much as four times

A recent study compiled by ASEAN Sustainable Agrifood Systems (ASEAN SAS) found that organic contract farmers in Cambodia generated almost four times more from farm activities than conventional smallholders – an economically highly substantial finding. For the most part, these results are attributable to the CEDAC (The Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture) agricultural programme, which through a bundle of hands-on training on organic farming, group certification, and contract farming arrangements aims to tackle rural poverty.

Since additional income is created, organic cultivation offers a highly interesting modality for development whereas the organic label reflects the value added.

In 2015, ASEAN SAS commissioned this research to evaluate how organic contract faming impinges on the livelihoods of small-scale farmers adopting it. Over the course of three months, lead researcher Mr. Benjamin Scholz supported by an interpreter and two CEDAC field staff conducted over 250 face-to-face interviews with rice farmers from 39 villages in Tram Kak district in Takeo province.

On 23 June 2016, the ASEAN SAS team in Cambodia held an event to disseminate the findings at the newly inaugurated Eco-Agri Center, located at the heart of Phnom Penh city. Among the participants were representatives of CEDAC, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the Japanese Embassy, Oxfam Cambodia, SNV Netherlands Development Organization, the German Foreign Exchange Service (DAAD), Indochina Research, the project’s partner company Entrée Baitang, and other GIZ projects as well as the GIZ Country Director to Cambodia, Mr. Adelbert Eberhardt.

Apart from sharing specific study findings, the event served as a valuable platform to exchange ideas and spread the word about the organic movement in Cambodia. During the presentation of results, some participants were surprised about the stark difference in farm income separating CEDAC farmers and conventional farmers.

But on an alarming note, many among the audience were shocked as to how vulnerable both organic and conventional rice farmers appear to be towards frequently occuring natural disasters, such as drought and flood. The findings revealed that in many cases farmer households lost up to one third of their total produce, reflecting both particularly severe climatic conditions and low capacity to cope.

Irrigation systems are therefore still very much needed to secure harvests in times of recurring water scarcity – regardless of whether one grow with organic techniques or not.

The results of the research study are now available and will soon be publish published by ASEAN SAS.

By ASEAN Sustainable Agrifood Systems Team, Cambodia

16/06/201610/07/2017

Increasing the use of climate information services to manage climate related risks in rice farming

The ASEAN Forestry and Climate Change Project (FOR-CC) joined hands with the ‘Better Rice Initiative Asia’ (BRIA) to organize a training of trainers on ‘Using Climate Information for Decision Making in Rice Farming’. The event was held in Grand Serela Hotel, Medan on May 5—7, 2016 and aims to develop an effective approach to support farmers in making better informed decisions about their crop and management options. To do so, a training module to improve farmers’ access to climate information as well as capacities to use this information and develop response strategies will be developed based on the training.

The training was attended by BRIA champion farmers, BRIA’s field facilitators, education institutions (University of North Sumatera (USU), Islam University of North Sumatera (UISU), College for Agriculture Extension (STPP) Medan), Assessment Institute for Agricultural Technology(BPTP) North Sumatera, Food Crops and Horticulture Plant Protection Service (BPTPH) North Sumatera. They are expected to use the learning and integrate it into their services provided to farmers and related organizations. Lectures were provided by key experts on the topic in Indonesia like the Indonesian Agroclimate and Hydrology Research Institute (IAHRI), the Indonesian Center for Rice Research (ICRR), the Center for Pest Forecasting (BBPOPT), the Indonesian Agency for Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysics (BMKG), University of Indonesia and the Indramayu Rainfall Observers Club. They covered topics ranging from the basic concepts of climatology and climate change to the Integrated Cropping Calendar of the IAHRI, new and improved rice varieties as well as the relationship between climatic factors and pest control.

The training was complemented by a field trip to Suka Makmur village, Binjai, Langkat, North Sumatera to observe a BMKG rainfall monitoring station and discuss the possible uses of climate information. On this occasion, Rhino Ariefiansyah an anthropologist from the University of Indonesia, together with one ofIndramayu Rainfall Observers Club member, Nurkillah demonstrated how the club collects rainfall and agro-ecological information and utilized to improve farm management decisions.

“I feel lucky to be able to join the training. It gave me an insight how actually we can use climate information to be well prepared of climate change. Nurkillah inspired me a lot on how to manage rice field. I am also happy that I have new friends to discuss about my rice fields and new knowledge. I just learnt that we actually have many types of rice varieties,” told Suhaimin, a farmer in Langkat, Medan, North Sumatera.

In the future, BRIA will keep updating its training modules by taking climate issues into account for extension activity. Furthermore, BRIA plans to integrate the CFT for rice within its database as well as to seek a cooperation with BMKG Sumatera Utara in term of addressing climate information services.

ASEAN-German Programme on Response to Climate Change in Agriculture and Forestry (GAP-CC) is comprised of two projects designed to improve the framework conditions for sustainable agriculture and forestry in ASEAN Member States: FOR-CC project that promoting increased resilience to climate change in ASEAN Member States through the dissemination of climate smart agriculture practices and the Sustainable Agrifoods System project (SAS), through the Better Rice Initiative Asia (BRIA) that developing and disseminating best practices in rice production to improve farmer’s incomes and nutrition while reducing externalities on the environment.

Article contributed by ASEAN Forestry and Climate Change (FOR-CC)/ Photos by Theopilus Sitepu

27/05/201509/08/2017

Organic agrifood products showcase at the launch of Thailand’s crop insurance 2015 scheme promoting agriculture risk management

Thailand’s crop insurance 2015 scheme was recently kicked off in central region’s Ang Thong province on 15 May. Finance Minister Sommai Phasee opened the launch ceremony with over 300 farmers attending the event. GIZ’s ASEAN Sustainable Agrifood Systems (SAS) project’s representatives were also present.

The Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) is the distribution and claims processing arm of the Thai rice insurance scheme. GIZ signed a “Memorandum of Understanding on joint technical cooperation in the field of strengthening marketing & distribution for crop insurance for smallholder farmers” with BAAC under the SAS’s RIICE (“Remote sensing based information and insurance for crops in emerging economies”) public-private-partnership project.

RIICE is carried by five parties, namely Allianz Re, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) (German Development Cooperation), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), and sarmap. The parties aim to establish a public-private-partnership model to transfer natural catastrophe risks from farmers and governments to the private insurance sector. The project makes use of remote sensing technologies to observe the growth of rice. Through timely and transparent information on crop losses due to natural catastrophes, insurers can act quickly and pay claims systematically.

It was agreed in the MoU that RIICE will support BAAC in running its insurance operations more efficiently.