Climate variability increases agricultural risks such as droughts, floods and new/re-emerging diseases. These and other impacts can reduce harvest production and quality and negatively affect national and household assets, increase hunger and poverty and spur civil instability.  Agricultural insurance is an essential risk management tool that can help respond to natural disasters, restore lost assets and create a sustainable agricultural sector.  However, many countries still do not sufficiently understand the value of such insurance. Therefore many have not yet taken the necessary initial steps to create a commercial, legal and political environment that will directly benefit its farmers, consumers and economy.

To help address these important issues, and others, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) will host its ‘Second Annual Symposium for Facilitating the Development of Agriculture Insurance in the Americas’ on February 16, 2011 in the Sala Padilha Vidal of the Organization of American States (OAS), 1889 F Street, NW, Washington, DC.  This event is a follow up of a workshop organized by the IICA Office in Washington in 2010 in which specialists from the international community discussed how to best implement agricultural insurance in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). For more information please contact: knanlal@iicawash.org 

GENERAL OBJECTIVE 

The overall objective of this workshop is to facilitate the development of adequate agricultural insurance schemes and products in Latin America and the Caribbean within a broader risk management framework.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

1. Provide a venue for a broad and candid dialogue on agricultural insurance
2. Review the state of agricultural insurance in the hemisphere, regionally and by country
3. Discuss the successes and challenges encountered in implementing agricultural insurance
4. Understand each participating organization’s priorities, plans and programs for further expansion of agricultural insurance
5. Determine, where possible, how to work more effectively and collectively with other organizations, agencies, donors, associations and the insurance community to expand sound insurance and risk management practices
6. Determine what subsequent steps can be taken to continue this dialogue with a focus on concrete results

Press Release:
IICA Convenes International Experts at the ‘Second Annual Symposium for Facilitating the Development of Agriculture Insurance in the Americas’

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