drought

According to Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurer, global crop insurance claims in 2012 reached a massive $23 billion. Munich Re attributes as much as $15 billion of these losses in the U.S. due to the severe drought in 2012. Crop losses are growing with increasing insurance penetration and in years to come these figures […]

The development of microinsurance products using satellite data to create index-based insurance products is a growing industry and one which is showing increasing promise as the pilot projects scale out to encompass thousands of policyholders. The application of satellite technologies to create indices against which insurance products can be triggered is changing the way farmers […]

A report from rating agency Standard & Poor’s estimates that the U.S. crop insurance and reinsurance sector will see losses of over $5 billion from the severe drought which has been affecting much of the country in 2012. S&P says that however large the loss becomes they believe it will impact crop insurers earnings but […]

Just two or three weeks ago many insurance publications were suggesting that crop insurance losses resulting from the severe drought in the U.S. would not be large enough to hit the global reinsurance market. We’ve been cautious on this point, as we could see the increasing severity of the drought (the worst in more than […]

A new study from reinsurer Swiss Re shows that with drought conditions becoming more common in Europe a side effect has been an increase in the incidence of drought induced soil subsidence, resulting in higher levels of property damage. The study suggests that the changing climate will magnify the risk of soil subsidence and a […]

Here’s another great example of microinsurance in action through the use of index-based weather insurance policies for farmers in developing nations. Farmers in Kibwezi, Kenya have become the first to receive a payout from a recently launched drought insurance product sold by Jubilee Insurance.

France is currently in the middle of the worst drought the country has faced in the last 50 years according to the French weather agency Météo France. The dry period has surpassed the 1976 heat and drought period and experts say as bad as 2003 when thousands died in a heatwave in high summer.

This summers extreme heatwave in Russia which resulted in widespread fires and a serious drought across much of the country has caused considerable losses for individuals and the public/private sectors. Drought destroyed 17% of the available crop area in Russia and the fires spread over 200,000 hectares causing widespread damage and loss of homes and […]

An project called Food Early Solutions for Africa (FESA) has been working on validating a microinsurance product for African farmers which will use satellite technology to measure drought conditions. This allows them to create an index against which a microinsurance drought product can be triggered.

Parts of Russia are currently suffering from their worst drought conditions for years with some areas not having had any rain since April. This extreme dry season has occurred after the most severe winter suffered by Russia in many years which destroyed winter crops. So Russian farmers are having a particularly bad time of it […]