Livestock farmers and herders in Kenya’s northern Isiolo District will soon be able to insure their animals against drought using an index-based insurance product (photo credit:  Raimond Duijsens/NLRC).

Three institutions have agreed to a Sh1.15-billion deal to reduce the effects of drought on pastoralists in Isiolo, in northern Kenya, where livestock farmers and herders have suffered huge losses in recent years due to recurrent droughts.

APA insurance, World Vision and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) have introduced an index-based insurance product using satellite-based data to provide cover against the loss of livestock. . . .

‘The partnership will come as a relief to the community around the region whose socio-economic activities are characterised by nomadic lifestyle with livestock being their major source of wealth.

‘The deal will rely on ILRI’s technology to observe vegetation cover while providing a trigger for the insurance payout by APA. The insurance package will be based on models developed by ILRI which establishes a relationship between average livestock mortality in the area and forage availability. . . .

‘This project in Isiolo is a follow-up of a similar initiative which APA partnered with ILRI in Marsabit last year. Marsabit has similar climatic characteristics.

This is a scale-up of the index-based livestock insurance programme, having initially begun in Marsabit and now we are in Isiolo,” said Andrew Mude, a senior scientist at ILRI in charge of the partnership.’

Read the whole article in the Daily Nation (Kenya): Firms strike Sh1.15bn deal to stem loss of livestock in Isiolo, 28 Jul 2013.