Agricultural Insurance in Kenya: Protecting Your Crops and Agribusiness

Farming is more than planting a seed and waiting for harvest.

It involves land preparation, seeds, fertiliser, labour, irrigation, machinery and other inputs. By the time a crop is ready for harvest, a farmer may have invested significant amounts of money into the production cycle.

But agriculture is also exposed to risks that farmers cannot always control.

Drought. Floods. Hailstorms. Pests. Crop diseases. Fire. Strong winds.

When these events cause physical damage or reduce yields, the financial consequences can extend far beyond the farm.

This is where agricultural insurance can play an important role.

Geminia provides agricultural insurance solutions designed to help protect farming investments against specified risks, including Crop Insurance and Greenhouse Insurance.

What Is Agricultural Insurance?

Agricultural insurance provides financial protection against specified risks that can affect agricultural production.

For farmers, the purpose is not to prevent drought, pests or floods from happening.

Instead, insurance helps manage the financial impact of an insured loss.

This can help farmers maintain financial stability, protect their investment in production and reduce the need to rely entirely on emergency borrowing or cash reserves after a loss.

Geminia's Crop Insurance brochure specifically highlights financial stability, reduced financial strain, access to credit and increased creditworthiness among the benefits of the cover.

What Risks Can Affect Your Crops?

Agriculture is exposed to multiple risks throughout the growing season.

Geminia's Crop Insurance covers physical loss or damage to growing crops directly caused by specified insured perils, including:

• •Drought
• •Uncontrollable pests and diseases
• •Hailstone damage
• •Flooding of crop fields
• •Fire and lightning
• •Malicious damage
• •Earthquake
• •Riot and strike
• •Explosion
• •Windstorm

For a farmer, this means that protecting the crop should be considered alongside other farming practices such as good seed selection, irrigation, pest management and proper farm planning.

Which Crops Can Be Insured?

Geminia's Crop Insurance brochure specifically identifies:

• •Maize
• •Wheat
• •Sorghum
• •Barley
• •Other field crops

The exact eligibility and terms of cover should be confirmed when arranging the policy.

How Does Crop Insurance Work?

One of the most important things for a farmer to understand is what the insurance is actually protecting.

According to the Geminia Crop Insurance brochure, the basis of cover may be:

1 — Cost of Production

The cover can be based on the amount invested in producing the crop.

2 — Loan Amount

The basis can be the amount borrowed from a financial institution.

3 — Expected Yield Income

The cover can also be based on expected income from the crop yield.

This provides flexibility depending on the farmer's production and financing arrangements.

What Happens If Your Crop Produces Less Than Expected?

This is where the cover becomes particularly important.

Geminia Crop Insurance compensates the farmer for a yield shortfall below the guaranteed level when that shortfall results from physical loss or damage to growing crops caused by an insured peril.

Claims are settled based on the yield shortfall below the guaranteed level resulting from an insured peril.

In simple terms:

Why Should Farmers Consider Crop Insurance?

Protect Your Farming Investment

A poor harvest can mean losing money that has already been spent on production.

Crop insurance can provide financial protection against qualifying insured losses.

Reduce Financial Strain

Instead of relying entirely on emergency borrowing or available cash after an insured loss, insurance can provide a financial safety net. Geminia identifies reduced financial strain as one of the benefits of its Crop Insurance.

Improve Access to Credit

Agricultural insurance can also support access to financing.

Geminia highlights enhanced sustainability through facilitating access to credit and increased creditworthiness with financial institutions as benefits of the cover.

This can be particularly relevant to farmers who rely on agricultural financing to fund production.

What About Greenhouse Farming?

Greenhouse farming allows farmers to create a more controlled production environment, but it doesn't eliminate risk.

The greenhouse structure itself can be damaged. Irrigation equipment can fail. Machinery can break down. Growing crops can be affected by damage to the greenhouse, while harvested produce can also be exposed to risks during certain stages of transportation.

This is why greenhouse operations may need protection that goes beyond the crop itself.

Geminia Greenhouse Insurance

Geminia Greenhouse Insurance is a sectionalised policy designed to protect greenhouse agribusinesses against loss or damage to greenhouse structures, growing crops, irrigation equipment, machinery, stock in cold rooms and transit, and other assets related to greenhouse production.

The cover is divided into different sections.

Section 1: Plastic Cladding and Greenhouse Structures

The greenhouse itself represents a significant investment.

Geminia's cover includes:

Plastic Cladding

Protection against loss or damage to the plastic cover resulting from fire and allied perils.

The insured is protected on a replacement-value basis for the plastic cladding covering the greenhouse.

Steel Structure

The steel structure supporting the greenhouse is also covered against loss or damage resulting from fire and allied perils, with protection based on its replacement value.

Section 2: Greenhouse Crop Insurance

Your greenhouse may protect your crops from certain environmental conditions, but the greenhouse itself can suffer damage.

Geminia's Greenhouse Crop Insurance covers loss or damage to growing crops in the greenhouse resulting from fire and allied perils affecting the greenhouse structure.

Compensation is based on the cost of production of the affected crops.

This section must be taken together with Section 1.

Section 3: Irrigation Equipment

Modern farming can depend heavily on reliable irrigation.

A greenhouse irrigation system can include:

• •Pumps
• •Valves
• •Sensors
• •Piping
• •Sprinklers
• •Nozzles
• •Water filtration systems

Geminia's Greenhouse Insurance provides cover for qualifying loss or damage to irrigation equipment from the water supply point through to the equipment in the greenhouse, resulting from fire and allied perils. This section must be taken together with Section 1.

Section 4: Machinery Breakdown

A greenhouse operation may rely on machinery such as pumps and compressors.

If machinery suddenly breaks down, the resulting disruption can affect the entire production process.

Geminia's Machinery Breakdown section covers declared machinery against sudden and unforeseen physical loss, damage or breakdown.

Section 5: Deterioration of Stock

Harvesting your crop is not necessarily the end of the risk.

For operations involving harvested flowers or crops, refrigeration and other machinery may be essential to preserving stock.

Geminia provides cover for deterioration of harvested flowers or crops resulting from sudden and unforeseen loss or damage to machinery insured under the Machinery Breakdown section.

This cover must be taken together with Section 4.

Section 6: Transit

Your produce still has to get from the farm to the market.

For harvested flowers or crops transported using refrigerated vehicles, Geminia's Greenhouse Insurance provides cover for loss or damage resulting from fire, overturning and collision while being transported from the farm to the port of exit, collection centre or market.

This makes transit an important part of the overall risk-management picture for greenhouse agribusinesses.

Crop Insurance vs Greenhouse Insurance: Which One Do You Need?

They address different agricultural risks.

The distinction is based on the scope of the two Geminia brochures. The applicable policy terms, conditions and requirements determine the actual cover.

Agriculture Insurance Is About More Than Recovering a Loss

The value of agricultural insurance isn't only what happens after an incident.

It can also help farmers plan with greater financial confidence.

Geminia identifies several benefits of Crop Insurance, including:

Financial Stability

Protecting the investment made in crop production.

Better Access to Credit

Supporting sustainability and facilitating access to credit.

Increased Creditworthiness

Potentially improving credibility with financial institutions.

Reduced Financial Strain

Reducing reliance on emergency borrowing or cash reserves following a loss.

Peace of Mind

Providing reassurance throughout the farming operation.

How Do You Take Up Agricultural Insurance?

For Crop Insurance, the brochure states that the farmer needs to:

• •Complete a proposal form.
• •Pay the premium quoted by Geminia Insurance.

For Greenhouse Insurance, the requirements include:

• •A duly completed proposal form
• •Relevant declaration forms
• •Copy of ID and PIN certificate
• •Risk Assessment Survey

Farmers can contact Geminia's agriculture team or visit a Geminia branch to discuss the appropriate cover. The brochures provide 020-2782000 and agriculture@geminia.co.ke as agriculture contacts.

7 Questions Every Farmer Should Ask About Risk

Before the next planting or production cycle, consider:

1. How much have I invested in this crop?
2. What would happen financially if my yield falls significantly?
3. Which risks pose the greatest threat to my farm?
4. Am I relying on a bank or other financial institution to fund production?
5. If I operate a greenhouse, how much have I invested in the structure and equipment?
6. What would happen if critical irrigation or machinery failed?
7. How would I manage financially if an insured event affected my production?

These questions can help you identify where insurance may form part of your broader farm risk-management strategy.

Protect the Harvest Before You Need to

You cannot control the weather.

You cannot always prevent pests or diseases.

And even with careful planning, unexpected events can affect your crops, greenhouse, equipment or produce in transit.

But you can prepare for the financial consequences of qualifying risks.

Whether you're growing maize in the field, cultivating crops under a greenhouse or running a larger agribusiness operation, protecting your investment can be an important part of building a more resilient farming business.

Protect Your Agribusiness with Geminia

Geminia Crop Insurance helps protect growing crops against specified insured perils and qualifying yield shortfalls.

Geminia Greenhouse Insurance provides sectionalised protection for greenhouse structures, crops, irrigation equipment, machinery, harvested produce and specified transit risks.

Think Insurance. Think Geminia.