Bangladesh : Agricultural Insurance Solutions Appraisal Technical Report

Agriculture is a key sector in Bangladesh, but it is highly exposed to risks. While agriculture is a source of employment and livelihood for nearly one in two adults in Bangladesh and contributes about 16 percent to GDP, it is highly exposed to nat...

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Main Author: World Bank Group
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/418491545057956149/Bangladesh-Agricultural-Insurance-Solutions-Appraisal-Technical-Report
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31038
id okr-10986-31038
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-310382021-05-25T09:20:56Z Bangladesh : Agricultural Insurance Solutions Appraisal Technical Report World Bank Group AGRICULTURAL INSURANCE PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS INSTITUTIONS AQUACULTURE LIVESTOCK CROP INSURANCE INDEX INSURANCE SUBSIDIES POVERTY REDUCTION WELFARE IMPACT Agriculture is a key sector in Bangladesh, but it is highly exposed to risks. While agriculture is a source of employment and livelihood for nearly one in two adults in Bangladesh and contributes about 16 percent to GDP, it is highly exposed to natural hazards. Indeed, Bangladesh is commonly ranked as one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to natural disasters with agriculture heavily exposed to floods, cyclones, and drought. In 2007, for instance, Cyclone Sidr destroyed 0.69 million ha of cultivated crop lands and killed over 460,000 head of livestock and poultry.In the past, the government of Bangladesh and development partners have provided substantialsupport to farmers in the aftermath of large disasters, but this approach has disadvantages in that support is not guaranteed to farmers and may be slow. In the aftermath of Cyclone Sidr,recovery and reconstruction needs were estimated at USD 1.3 billion, or 28 percent of governmentexpenditures. In spite of efforts by the government of Bangladesh, the gap between available funding and needs is often large and can reach more than USD 1.5 billion in bad years (Air Worldwide and ADPC 2014). Bangladesh often relies on international assistance, as over the past ten years, only 33 percent of disaster-related expenses has been met by domestic resources. In addition, disaster relief transfers often take substantial time to reach beneficiaries and require to divert resources away from long term development projects. Agricultural insurance offers the government a planned, fast, ex ante alternative to ad hoc disaster response, one that (1) reduces the ex post fiscal burden on the government, (2) improves farmers’ resilience to shocks, and (3) supports the expansion of agricultural credit. Every five years on average in Bangladesh, production shocks lead to a drop of up to 50 percent in crop income available for consumption in average rural households. This drop pushes many small- and medium- scale farmers into poverty. Although many Bangladeshi farmers can access credit, their exposure to risks makes formal financial institutions reluctant to lend to them, so that most farmers borrow from informal lenders at average annual interest rates ranging from 19 percent to 30 percent. Agricultural insurance transfers risk away from farmers, and therefore benefits financial institutions and the government of Bangladesh as well as the farmers themselves. 2018-12-19T21:09:58Z 2018-12-19T21:09:58Z 2018-12-17 Report http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/418491545057956149/Bangladesh-Agricultural-Insurance-Solutions-Appraisal-Technical-Report http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31038 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work :: Other Agriculture Study Economic & Sector Work South Asia Bangladesh
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic AGRICULTURAL INSURANCE
PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS
INSTITUTIONS
AQUACULTURE
LIVESTOCK
CROP INSURANCE
INDEX INSURANCE
SUBSIDIES
POVERTY REDUCTION
WELFARE IMPACT
spellingShingle AGRICULTURAL INSURANCE
PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS
INSTITUTIONS
AQUACULTURE
LIVESTOCK
CROP INSURANCE
INDEX INSURANCE
SUBSIDIES
POVERTY REDUCTION
WELFARE IMPACT
World Bank Group
Bangladesh : Agricultural Insurance Solutions Appraisal Technical Report
geographic_facet South Asia
Bangladesh
description Agriculture is a key sector in Bangladesh, but it is highly exposed to risks. While agriculture is a source of employment and livelihood for nearly one in two adults in Bangladesh and contributes about 16 percent to GDP, it is highly exposed to natural hazards. Indeed, Bangladesh is commonly ranked as one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to natural disasters with agriculture heavily exposed to floods, cyclones, and drought. In 2007, for instance, Cyclone Sidr destroyed 0.69 million ha of cultivated crop lands and killed over 460,000 head of livestock and poultry.In the past, the government of Bangladesh and development partners have provided substantialsupport to farmers in the aftermath of large disasters, but this approach has disadvantages in that support is not guaranteed to farmers and may be slow. In the aftermath of Cyclone Sidr,recovery and reconstruction needs were estimated at USD 1.3 billion, or 28 percent of governmentexpenditures. In spite of efforts by the government of Bangladesh, the gap between available funding and needs is often large and can reach more than USD 1.5 billion in bad years (Air Worldwide and ADPC 2014). Bangladesh often relies on international assistance, as over the past ten years, only 33 percent of disaster-related expenses has been met by domestic resources. In addition, disaster relief transfers often take substantial time to reach beneficiaries and require to divert resources away from long term development projects. Agricultural insurance offers the government a planned, fast, ex ante alternative to ad hoc disaster response, one that (1) reduces the ex post fiscal burden on the government, (2) improves farmers’ resilience to shocks, and (3) supports the expansion of agricultural credit. Every five years on average in Bangladesh, production shocks lead to a drop of up to 50 percent in crop income available for consumption in average rural households. This drop pushes many small- and medium- scale farmers into poverty. Although many Bangladeshi farmers can access credit, their exposure to risks makes formal financial institutions reluctant to lend to them, so that most farmers borrow from informal lenders at average annual interest rates ranging from 19 percent to 30 percent. Agricultural insurance transfers risk away from farmers, and therefore benefits financial institutions and the government of Bangladesh as well as the farmers themselves.
format Report
author World Bank Group
author_facet World Bank Group
author_sort World Bank Group
title Bangladesh : Agricultural Insurance Solutions Appraisal Technical Report
title_short Bangladesh : Agricultural Insurance Solutions Appraisal Technical Report
title_full Bangladesh : Agricultural Insurance Solutions Appraisal Technical Report
title_fullStr Bangladesh : Agricultural Insurance Solutions Appraisal Technical Report
title_full_unstemmed Bangladesh : Agricultural Insurance Solutions Appraisal Technical Report
title_sort bangladesh : agricultural insurance solutions appraisal technical report
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2018
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/418491545057956149/Bangladesh-Agricultural-Insurance-Solutions-Appraisal-Technical-Report
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31038
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