Weather Forecast: Agric Insurance disassociates self from farmers’ N1.7 trillion loss claims

 

The Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) has distanced itself from claims by farmers alleging losses of over N1.7 trillion purportedly arising from inaccurate weather forecasts issued by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET).

The farmers had accused NiMET of providing wrong predictions, which they said had negatively influenced the farming decisions that made them incur crop losses worth the said amount, saying that erratic rainfall, prolonged droughts, and unexpected flooding destroyed crops planted based on the agency’s weather predictions.

Reacting to the allegations being a nation's institute in the custody of indemnity payment to crop losses, the public relations manager, NAIC, Mrs Magdalene Omosimua, said her agency was not aware of any such incident or claims from the farmers. 

She noted that NAIC has neither received official complaints nor seen any publication backing the  N1.7 trillion loss associated with incorrect weather forecast allegations.

"We are not aware of that, Mrs. Omosimua said during a phone interview, added that “And until we come across a publication that is stating that farmers are made to incur 1.7 trillion Naira as a result of climate change effects, that is when we will now check our own register to see if they are on our programme, to see if they actually insured their farms under us. Until then, we can’t see anything regarding this”

She further explained that NAIC’s responsibility is limited to farmers who are duly registered and insured under its schemes, stressing that the corporation cannot act on unverified claims.

The alleged losses, which farmers linked to failed crops and disrupted planting cycles, have intensified discussions around climate change and the vulnerability of Nigeria’s agricultural sector as farmers claimed their reliance on NiMET’s seasonal forecasts had resulted in great crop losses running to trillions of naira.

NAIC maintained that the insured status of the affected farmers remains unclear. Mrs Omosimua stressed that the agency has not been approached by any of the farmers involved.

“For now, we’ve not seen anything, and we’ve not heard anything from any of these farmers or from any publication stating these issues", she said.

NAIC emphasised that until formal claims are submitted or credible reports are made available, the corporation will not be able to investigate the allegations.