138,000 and Counting: Exploring the Growing Popularity of Livestock Insurance Among Kenyan Pastoralists
The World Bank-backed livestock insurance cover for Kenyan farmers has registered more than 138,000 pastoralists, highlighting the schemeโs growing popularity.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development disclosed the numbers Wednesday, adding that the farmers have tapped more than Sh2.7 billion worth of benefits in the form of claims payouts and State insurance premium subsidies.
Dubbed De-risking, Inclusion and Value Enhancement of pastoral economies (Drive), the five-year project was started to protect farmers following the devastating drought of year 2022 that claimed the lives of at least 2.5 million livestock.
โDriveโs incentives, which have so far reached over 138,000 pastoralists in 12 counties with insurance and saving incentives, have had over Sh2.7 billion in benefits transferred to pastoralists,โ the ministry said in a statement.
The plan is being undertaken by the State, the World Bank and insurance firm ZEP-RE and seeks to strengthen support to pastoralists through fast access to cash in the form of insurance payouts or savings whenever there is a drought.
Climate resilience
The project provides insurance to pastoralists who have five tropical livestock units (TLUs) per household.
A TLU includes a mature cow, 10 sheep or a similar number of goats or 0.7 percent of camels. This is the unit used to standardise livestock in the project.
The first component of the project entails financial services for climate resilience while the second phase will include livestock value chains and trade enhancement.
The drive also seeks to include the pastoralists in the value chain and facilitate the livestock trade in the Horn of Africa.
The project is also being undertaken in Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia, targeting 250,000 pastoralist households in the four countries.
Growing exports
The State reckons that the project is key to enhancing the beef carcass weight from the current 110 kilogrammes to 150 kilogrammes and above for competitiveness on the local and international markets.
This will boost chances of Kenyan pastoralists growing their exports to leading economies like the United Arab Emirates that recently allowed Kenyan beef exporters to directly sell meat to supermarkets in the Gulf nations.
The registered pastoralists with more than half a million tropical livestock units or cows equivalent have been insured under this scheme in Garissa, Isiolo, Kajiado, Laikipia, Lamu, Mandera, Marsabit, Narok, Samburu, Tana River, Turkana and Wajir.
The project is set to expand to Meru North, Baringo, West Pokot, Kilifi, Kwale, Taita Taveta, Tharaka Nithi, Kitui and Makueni.
Byย John Mutua
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