Editing IPCC:AR6/WGII/Chapter-9 (section)

=== 9.8.4 Climate Information Services and Insurance for Agriculture Adaptation ===

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In addition to adaptation in crop, soil and water management, the combination of (a) Climate Information Services, (b) institutional capacity building and (c) strategic financial investment can help African food producers adapt to projected climate risks ( [[#Carter--2015|Carter et al., 2015]] ; [[#Surminski--2016|Surminski et al., 2016]] ; [[#Scott--2017|Scott et al., 2017]] ; [[#Cinner--2018|Cinner et al., 2018]] ; [[#Diouf--2019|Diouf et al., 2019]] ; [[#Hansen--2019a|Hansen et al., 2019a]] ). There is growing evidence of farmers’ use of weather and climate information, especially at the short- and medium-time horizon ( [[#Carr--2016|Carr et al., 2016]] ; [[#Singh--2018|Singh et al., 2018]] ). Digital services can contribute to the sustainable intensification of food production globally ( [[#Duncombe--2018|Duncombe, 2018]] ; [[#Klerkx--2019|Klerkx et al., 2019]] ). This points to the need for the scientific and development communities to better understand the conditions that enable widespread adoption in Africa.

Although climate information services have the potential to strengthen farmers’ resilience, barriers to accessibility, affordability and utilisation remain ( [[#Krell--2021|Krell et al., 2021]] ). Often the information offered is not consistent with what farmers need to know and how they access and process information ( [[#Meadow--2015|Meadow et al., 2015]] ; [[#Singh--2018|Singh et al., 2018]] ). Production of salient and credible climate information is hindered by the limited availability of and access to weather and climate data ( [[#Coulibaly--2017|Coulibaly et al., 2017]] ; [[#Hansen--2019a|Hansen et al., 2019a]] ). The existing weather infrastructure remains suboptimal to enable the development of reliable early warning systems ( [[#Africa%20Adaptation%20Initiative--2018|Africa Adaptation Initiative, 2018]] ; [[#Krell--2021|Krell et al., 2021]] ). Of the 1017 land-based observational networks in the world, only 10% are in Africa, and 54% of Africa’s surface weather stations cannot capture data accurately ( [[#Africa%20Adaptation%20Initiative--2018|Africa Adaptation Initiative, 2018]] ; [[#World%20Bank--2020d|World Bank, 2020d]] ).

Advances in remote sensing and climate analysis tools have allowed the development of weather index insurance products as a potential adaptation option, with Malawi and Ethiopia being early testbeds ( [[#Tadesse--2015|Tadesse et al., 2015]] , [[#9.11.4|Section 9.11.4]] ). These pilot projects were initially sponsored by NGOs, but in the last decade, the private sector has become more active in this sector. The Ghana Agricultural Insurance Pool and Agriculture and Climate Risk Enterprise (ACRE) in Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda are examples. Despite the potential for weather index insurance, uptake by smallholder farmers in Africa remains constrained by several factors. These include the failure to capture actual crop loss as in traditional crop insurance products, as well as the inability of poor farmers to pay premiums ( [[#Elum--2017|Elum et al., 2017]] ; [[#Weber--2019|Weber, 2019]] ). Weather index insurance could be part of a wider portfolio of risk mitigation services offered to farmers ( [[#Tadesse--2015|Tadesse et al., 2015]] ; [[#Weber--2019|Weber, 2019]] ). Strategic partnerships between key players (e.g., credit institutions, policymakers, meteorologists, farmer associations, extension services, NGOs) are needed to develop better products and build capacity among smallholder farmers to engage more beneficially with weather index insurance ( [[#Singh--2018|Singh et al., 2018]] ; [[#Tesfaye--2019|Tesfaye et al., 2019]] ).

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