Climate Insurance for Dry Zone Farmers in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Dry zone agriculture in Sri Lanka is found to be highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Variations in the rainfall pattern and the incidents of droughts and floods have been more frequent recently. Rain-fed farmers are particularly at risk of changing rainfall. Climate risks bring in additional challenges to dry zone agriculture. Given the increasing risks and uncertainties due to climate change, it is important to understand the risk management strategies of farmers in facing the climate related risks and uncertainties. Among others, climate insurance has increasingly been discussed as a risk management strategy. Thus it is interesting to assess climate insurance as a risk management strategy for dry zone farmers in Sri Lanka.