Filling in the blanks: How to address data gaps to develop better livestock insurance for smallholder farmers

A key challenge to the development of successful livestock insurance in emerging markets is often a lack of data on the risks. As a result, livestock insurance is very often either unavailable or unaffordable for smallholder farmers. As part of the IFAD-funded grant project ‘Managing Risks for Rural Development: Promotion Microinsurance Innovations,’ the MicroInsurance Centre at Milliman team piloted and launched a dairy cow insurance product in the Republic of Georgia. Because of a lack of data, the project team worked with local partners to collect the data required and incorporate it into the insurance product pricing. This knowledge brief presents an overview of the activities and lessons learned from addressing these data gaps in dairy cow mortality.

This brief was originally published by the International Fund for Agricultural Development as part of the INSURED program's Insurance Toolkit.