For peace of mind, Kasiime has insured her banana plantation

For 45 years, all Mirabu Kasiime has known is farming. She grew up in an agricultural family and apart from providing food, even the money for the family’s daily needs were earned from their small inter-cropped garden.
Until last year, Kasiime, a resident of Kyagaju Village in Sheema District, never knew that insuring her banana plantation made any sense at all.

Yet, the number of farmers guarding against natural hazards has started to increase since government rolled out premium subsidies under the Uganda Agriculture Insurance Scheme (UAIS). According to figures from the Uganda Insurers Association (UIA) the number of farmers accessing subsidies from government has increased from 30,000 to 40,000 farmers – a marked interest in the services.
Government introduced the scheme offering a premium subsidy to hedge farmers against agriculture risks/natural disasters such as floods, drought or fires.

Proud Kasiime
The 45-year-old Kasiime, a primary seven school dropout, is an exceptional farmer who thinks insurance is the future of agriculture in the country amidst all the uncertainties.
Kasiime, who is a banana farmer like many of her peers in Sheema, incurred huge losses in 2016 after her banana plantation was ravaged by strong winds, leading to the collapse of 200 plants, most of them with ready bananas.
Since most of Kasiime’s bananas, on the four-acre farm are tall, they are vulnerable to strong winds. She applies manure from cows and coffee in her plantation, which enables her to get big bunches of matooke, and a good yield.

“In 2016, I had about 450 banana plants. However, when strong winds hit me, most of the plants fell down. It was a huge loss,” Kasiime recollects, adding “It was a devastating time for me and I had to do something about it.”
She explains that since she is also a coffee farmer, she often attended agricultural trainings conducted by Olam (U) Ltd in Sheema. It was during one of these trainings that she was taught about agriculture insurance.

Tough lessons
Like the saying goes, “Experience is the best teacher”, the losses Kasiime had incurred made her welcome the idea with open hands.
Through an insurance broker, she was linked to APA Insurance, Mbarara branch. Thereafter, APA officials visited her plantation for assessment and her annual premium was estimated at Shs212,000.
Kasiime says, three months later, her banana plantation was again hit by a strong wind, causing some trees to fall down.
“This time, the disaster did not worry me. I just went to my insurer, who assessed the loss,” she beams.

The insurance company paid her Shs2.4m as compensation for the loss of part of her plantation.
At that time, she had insured only one of the four acres of her banana plantation. After getting her compensation, she insured the remaining three acres too. She used some of the remaining money to purchase mulch, more manure and pole supports for her plants.
Today, she is an excited farmer.

Project beneficiary
Raymond Zema, the Mbarara APA Insurance branch manager, says Kasiime got a 50 per cent premium subsidy instead of paying Shs424,000 in premium.
She paid a half (Shs212,000) as a result of the support that was given to the Agricultural Insurance Consortium by Agricultural Business Initiative (aBi). The three–year project started in August 2017 and will end in July 2020.
The subsidy has brought down the cost of insurance. Under the premium subsidy, for small holder farmers, government pays 50 per cent of the premiums and 30 per cent for large scale farmers. For farmers in disaster prone areas such as Isingiro, government pays 80 per cent of the premium.
The support by aBi is aimed at ensuring that by 2020, at least 500,000 farmers are aware of the agricultural scheme with 80,000 farmers able to access agricultural insurance under the UAIS. It is also aimed at increasing the volume of agricultural loans booked under agricultural insurance scheme from Shs61b to Shs100b.

Market
Kasiime sells her bananas to only one trader from Kampala, who upon harvesting pays cash. The trader harvests twice a month and gives her better prices. Because of this arrangement, she doesn’t incur any transport costs.
“I did this to eliminate middlemen, who used to cheat me by giving me low prices as they also had to make sure that they get some profit when they re-sell to traders from Kampala,” she says.
She currently sells a big bunch of matooke at a farm-gate price of Shs15,000 and a medium size bunch at Shs10,000.
Her income has stabilised as she earns about Shs1.2m on the lower end. She has used the proceeds from selling matooke to pay for three children’s education and to diversify her income she has also started a cattle trading business.

Agronomy practices
Kasiime says, she mulches her banana plantation using grass and banana leaves to suppress weeds and preserve moisture in the soil.
Also, mulching helps control soil erosion. She also ensures that her plantation is weed-free as these compete with the bananas for nutrients.
“When some weeds grow, I simply uproot them since hoeing leads to damage on the plant roots.”
She also ensures that she replenishes the soil nutrients by applying organic manure using cow dung and coffee husks.

Challenges
She says her biggest challenge is the unreliable prices of matooke. This, she says, makes it hard to predict how much she would earn, making it hard for her to plan. Also, Kasiime notes that farm inputs such as pesticides, manure and cost of labour are expensive, which reduces her profit margin. She also complains about some of the pesticides available on the market being fake.

Purpose
The Agriculture Insurance Premium Subsidy Scheme is a five-year programme which started on July 1, 2016 and Shs5b has been provided for by government.
The general objective of the scheme is to ensure that a Ugandan farmer is largely protected against the effects of agriculture risks.

Subsidised
Raymond Zema, the Mbarara APA Insurance branch manager, says Kasiime got a 50 per cent premium subsidy instead of paying Shs424,000 in premium. She paid a half (Shs212,000) as a result of the support that was given to the Agricultural Insurance Consortium by Agricultural Business Initiative (aBi). The three–year project started in August 2017 and will end in July 2020.