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Science-based insurance

Nature Geoscience volume 4, pages 213–214 (2011)Cite this article

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Crops are at risk in a changing climate. Farmers in the developing world will be able to insure against harvest failure if robust insurance packages, based on a geophysical index rather than individual loss, become widely available.

In developed countries, crop insurance is a commonly employed mechanism by which farmers and ranchers can guard against the reduction or destruction of yields by extreme weather events. However, traditional crop insurance is largely absent in less-developed countries, because costs of implementation are high and there are not enough effective financial institutions to broker insurances. Furthermore, insurance policies perversely provide an incentive for farmers to neglect their fields, a problem that is usually countered with expensive site visits by insurance claim adjusters2, which would not be financially feasible in the developing world.

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References

  1. US Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research The Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture, Land Resources, Water Resources and Biodiversity in the United States (US Climate Change Science Program, 2008).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biospheric Sciences Branch, Code 614.4, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, 20771, Maryland, USA

    Molly E. Brown

  2. International Climate Research Institute for Climate and Society, Columbia University, 220 Monell Building, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, 10964, New York, USA

    Daniel E. Osgood

  3. Iowa State University, 578D Heady Hall, Ames, 50011-1070, Iowa, USA

    Miguel A. Carriquiry

Authors
  1. Molly E. Brown
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  2. Daniel E. Osgood
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  3. Miguel A. Carriquiry
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Molly E. Brown.

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Cite this article

Brown, M., Osgood, D. & Carriquiry, M. Science-based insurance. Nature Geosci 4, 213–214 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1117

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