“It is no longer a trial and error enterprise but a serious endeavour where a farmer should be able to borrow money to fund their farming activities without fear of their properties being seized when their crops do badly. Crop insurance is the way to go for higher yields and better farm husbandry,” he said.

In his part, APA chief executive Ashok Shah said since 2016, pastoralists who insured their animals have also received Sh700 million for animals killed by drought, while another 37,500 farmers received Sh217 million for crop loss.

The APA boss further said that the payments are proof that insuring crops and livestock made commercial sense as farmers and pastoralists were able to concentrate on their activities as well as invest heavily without fear of suffering irreparable losses.

The crop insurance programme(CIP) mooted in 2016 creates a safety net for farmers taking up insurance for farmland of between a half-acre to 20- acres.

CIP is modelled on the Area Yield Index Insurance (AYII) mechanism piloted and by 2019, it has attracted 409,000 smallholder farmers in 27 counties insuring their crops against a loss risk of Sh2 billion.