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Grantee
IFFCO-Tokio General Insurance Co. Ltd. (ITGI) is a joint venture between Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Ltd (IFFCO), formed by more than 40,000 farmers' cooperatives, and Tokio Marine and Nichido Fire Inc of Japan. ITGI serves the insurance needs of the economically underprivileged rural masses across India through 52 strategic business units and a network of over 293 offices. ITGI is experienced in designing and marketing livestock microinsurance distributed through farmer cooperatives and cooperative banks.
Project Summary
- Project name: Loss mitigation in live stock insurance through electronic identification chip technology
- Project start date: 1st August 2009
- Duration: 2 years
- Country: India
Beneficiaries
The project targets more than 25,000 poor farmers and their families in the states of Gujarat, Punjab, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Orissa who depend on livestock as a main source of income. For these farmers, livestock is a continuous source of income, mostly from the milk produced and sold daily to milk producer cooperative societies.
Project Description
Animal husbandry and the dairy sector play an important role in the socio-economic development of India and protect poor farmers against shocks such as drought or famine. These livelihoods provide a major source of income to a large number of landless and rural people. In this context, livestock insurance is a critical service to mitigate the loss associated with the death of the animals. However, the claims for livestock insurance are often high due to the prevalence of moral hazard and fraud, reducing the availability of affordable coverage.
The project aims to test a model to reduce fraud by using an identification device placed under the hide of the animal (based on RFID technology - Radio Frequency Identification). The current means of identifying the insured animal is through ear tags, which can easily be lost or removed. By reducing fraudulent claims, the technology can benefit farmers through lower premiums to reflect the reduced claims. Additionally, the technology, used to store information about livestock such as vaccinations, can support the cooperatives and milk unions to improve herd management. The advent of more sustainable livestock insurance can also promote more product development, and invite other actors to enter the sector.
Key Challenges
- Low literacy and awareness level among potential clients
- Huge geographical and spatial distribution of clients
- Established practice of fraudulent behaviour
Learning Agenda
- To what extent the implementation of the technology reduce fraudulent claims?
- To what extent will farmers accept the new technology? How does the introduction of the technology improves
value from livestock insurance for cattle owners?
- What is overall impact of the technology and new related processes on costs, efficiency and profitability?
- To what extent does the technology can be integrated within a livestock management system to improve animal
health practices and herd management?
More information on the project
Website of the grantee:
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