Dr Zaki Wahhaj and Dr Harounan Kazianga (Okhlahoma State University) have initiated a research project on ‘Enhancing access to weather index agricultural insurance in Burkina Faso’ in partnership with Innovations for Poverty Action.
Rural households in developing countries are often heavily dependent on rainfall for farming purposes and the lack of rain can lead to crop failure and loss of income. Yet, for a variety of reasons, farmers are reluctant to purchase insurance products that insure against adverse rainfall shocks. The aim of this project is to investigate one potential solution to this problem that relies on making use of links between urban migrants and their relatives in rural areas for the purpose of marketing insurance.
The research project is being financed by the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation with an initial grant of 75,000 USD.