Applying seasonal climate forecasting and innovative insurance solutions to climate risk management in the agriculture sector in Southeast Asia

Countries in South East Asia are increasingly exposed to extreme weather events. The project therefore develops robust climate risk management systems and insurance products to protect coffee, sugar, rice, cassava and pasture farming from the physical and financial consequences of climate change, thereby supporting smallholders and enterprises along the value chain. It also supports the responsible ministries in developing knowledge-based adaptation and risk management strategies. Stakeholder workshops and socio-economic surveys help to identify the greatest risks posed by climate change and to identify key factors and any barriers to adaptation measures. Adaptation measures are also supported by seasonal climate forecasts. The risk management systems of the partner countries will be improved by using e.g. index-based insurance products and climate-intelligent, risk management tools and models.

Project data

Countries: Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), Viet Nam
IKI funding: 7,977,045.81 €
Duration: 04/2018 till 06/2024
Status: completed
Political Partner: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries - Cambodia

Ministry Of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation (MOALI) - Myanmar

Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) - Viet Nam

Ministry of Economy and Finance - Cambodia

Ministry of Environment (MoE) - Cambodia

Ministry of Finance - Laos

Ministry of Finance - Viet Nam

Ministry of Planning and Finance - Myanmar

Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology - Cambodia
Implementing Partner: International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)

University of Southern Queensland (USQ) - Australien
Online: https://deriskseasia.org/index.php

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State of implementation/results

Important project outputs and outcomes are provided at deriskseasia.org/…
Major project achievements:
- First pilot insurance scheme for smallholder robusta coffee farmers in Viet Nam: Coffee Climate Protection Insurance (CCPI) was launched. Pilot being implemented in Lam Dong and Dak Lak to manage drought, heatwave and excessive rainfall risks.
- Skill tests for verification of seasonal forecast data is being carried out on a continuous basis. Composite multi-model forecast map for each forecast type with associated verification of forecast skill continues to be produced.
- Series of short training videos on ‘Seasonal forecasts: from Science to Services’ developed by the UK Met Office and animation developed by the Queensland Government on ‘Understanding percentiles in climate data’
Scientific articles:
- Temperature and rainfall impacts on robusta coffee bean characteristics. Climate Risk Management: 100281. www.sciencedirect.com/…
- Feedback modelling of the impacts of drought: a case study in coffee production systems in Viet Nam. Climate Risk Management 30, 100255 www.sciencedirect.com/…
- Evaluating the performance of a process-based model for predicting coffee yield at the regional scale in Vietnam. Ecological Modelling 443, 109469 www.sciencedirect.com/…
In Viet Nam, an estimated 130,000 farmers reached through Zalo messaging app by providing agro-climatic bulletins for enhanced farm planning and decision-making using seasonal, monthly, and 10-day forecasts.
In Viet Nam, on-going cooperation with ECOM to implement and monitor pilot insurance scheme: Coffee Climate Protection Insurance (CCPI). Under phase 2 of the CCPI, insurance products for excess rainfall index were piloted in two coffee-producing provinces (Lam Dong and Dak Lak) for the period. No pay-outs were triggered due to normal weather conditions.
In Cambodia, 10,000 rice and cassava farmers were reached in two provinces (Battambang and Kampong Speu) through agro-climatic bulletins using SESAME application and Local Technical Agro-Climatic Committee (LTAC) approach. Further, a detailed study on farmers’ preference for in-surance prototypes and willingness to pay (WTP) in Battambang Province was completed.
In Lao PDR, about 100,000 beneficiaries were reached through various communication channels with FAO-SAMIS and through Laos Climate Services for Agriculture (LaCSA) national platform. Three new parametric insurance products are developed for the Lao PDR coffee industry to manage drought and extreme rainfall risk: High cumulative soil moisture, high cumulative rainfall for the period and high cumulative rainfall and high cumulative soil moisture.
Fine-tuning of the DSSAT-Cassava model for simulating irrigation impacts of cassava yield in Lao PDR and Vietnam as the third season production data is now available.
In Myanmar, a series of learning events on climate-smart agri-culture practices and accessing and using climate information services were organized in 2022. Col-laborated with a private company, Village Link to produce a weather-based crop advisory for green gram for the Central Dry Zone as a pilot agro-climatic advisory.
Established at least 25 partner-ships in the four countries during project implementation (2018-2022).
Scientific publications in high-impact journals.
A new irrigation decision support tool 'Irrigrow' has been developed to pro-vide irrigation scheduling advice to research staff. It will provide an automated irrigation advice (tim-ing and volume) balance for a variety of crops using local weather data.
Select events (participa-tion and presentation): DeRISK SE Asia National Closing Workshops in Phnom Penh, Cambodia: (17 Nov 2022) and in Hanoi, Viet Nam (24 Nov 2022), 19th Session of the ASEAN Climate Outlook Fo-rum (ASEANCOF-19) in Singapore (25 Nov 2022), DeRISK SE Asia: Regional Legacy workshop in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (9 Dec 2022), FAO Asia-Pacific Roadmap workshop “Developing an invest-ment roadmap for agricultural climate services in Asia and the Pacific” in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (8 Dec 2022).