[ti:In Kenya, Low-Cost Crop Insurance for Small Farmers]
[ar:Jim Tedder]
[al:Agriculture Report]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English 
[00:03.06]Agriculture Report.
[00:05.11]Weather does not discriminate 
[00:07.10]between large and small farms. 
[00:09.64]If it rains too much or too little, 
[00:13.08]crop insurance can pay for losses. 
[00:16.26]Yet insurance usually costs 
[00:19.25]too much for a farmer with as little 
[00:22.58]as a hectare or two of land.
[00:25.57]But now a program called Kilimo Salama, 
[00:29.76]or safe farming, offers low-cost 
[00:33.79]insurance in parts of Kenya. 
[00:36.24]The program is offered 
[00:38.33]by the Syngenta Foundation, 
[00:40.67]established by the Swiss 
[00:43.15]agricultural-chemical maker Syngenta. 
[00:47.09]Farmers register at businesses 
[00:50.17]taking part in the program 
[00:52.51]and receive a policy number 
[00:55.40]through their mobile phone.
[00:57.54]Every time the farmers buy seeds, 
[01:01.67]fertilizer or other inputs, 
[01:04.65]they pay an extra five percent 
[01:07.64]in addition to the price. 
[01:09.58]This extra cost is the insurance premium. 
[01:13.66]The farmers are paid back 
[01:16.30]for the inputs if their crops fail 
[01:19.28]because of drought or flood.
[01:21.42]The program is designed for maize 
[01:25.11]and wheat farmers like Josephat Langat.
[01:29.09]He owns a two-hectare farm 
[01:32.17]near Eldoret in western Kenya.
[01:35.21]JOSEPHAT LANGAT: "In a case where 
[01:36.85]we do not have a lot of rainfall, 
[01:38.19]it means we are going 
[01:39.19]to lose all the crops. 
[01:40.28]But this insurance policy is going 
[01:42.97]to cover the farm inputs 
[01:44.22]that we use in the farms, 
[01:46.16]so that is going to give us the certainty 
[01:48.25]of going back to the farms again 
[01:49.59]if the rains do not come."
[01:52.08]He buys his agricultural inputs 
[01:54.75]at Maraba Investments in Eldoret. 
[01:58.48]About two hundred farmers signed up 
[02:01.61]for the insurance within the first two weeks 
[02:04.91]that it was being offered there. 
[02:06.55]Beatrice Kemboi is a director of the business.
[02:11.38]BEATRICE KEMBOI: "When a farmer elects 
[02:13.67]to join the insurance, 
[02:15.81]we sell the product on wholesale 
[02:19.74]so that the premium is reduced, 
[02:21.48]so that he doesn'tt feel it, 
[02:23.57]so that it cushions him 
[02:25.96]and I've also sold the product."
[02:27.65]Beatrice Kemboi says every day 
[02:30.84]she and her workers register 
[02:33.72]from five to ten farmers in the program. 
[02:37.06]When farmers buy their inputs, 
[02:39.99]the store worker uses a mobile phone camera 
[02:44.07]to scan barcode symbols 
[02:46.92]that match the product. 
[02:48.71]A text message confirming the policy number 
[02:52.64]and sale is then sent automatically.
[02:56.23]The program also uses solar-powered 
[03:00.31]weather stations to record 
[03:02.36]local rainfall amounts. 
[03:05.10]The data is sent to the UAP Insurance Company. 
[03:09.67]When there is crop failure 
[03:11.86]because of a drought or flood, 
[03:14.80]farmers receive a text message. 
[03:17.34]It tells them to receive payment 
[03:20.82]from the business where 
[03:24.01]they purchased their inputs.
[03:26.01]And that's the VOA Special English 
[03:29.59]Agriculture Report, with reporting 
[03:32.58]by Cathy Majtenyi in Eldoret, Kenya. 
[03:36.52]You can read and listen to our reports 
[03:39.55]at 51voa.com. 
[03:42.94]We're also on Facebook, Twitter, 
[03:46.72]YouTube and iTunes at VOA Learning English. 
[03:51.76]I'm Jim Tedder.