[Microinsurancefocus] Invitation to Participate in CMF-SEWA Seminar on Risk Mitigation in Agriculture, August 11th, Ahmedabad

[Alexandra Kobishyn]

To Members of the Microinsurance Focus List:

My name is Alexandra (alex) Kobishyn and I work at the Centre for Micro
Finance (CMF) at IFMR in Chennai.  I am writing to invite members of this
list-serv to attend a seminar that CMF will be organizing in Collaboration
with SEWA in Ahmedabad, India on Tuesday, August 11th. As experts in the
area of microinsurance we would be thrilled to have your participation in
this event and to have you engage with the work of the Centre for Micro
Finance.

The event is titled ‘Risk Mitigation in Agriculture’ and aims to cover
specific risks farmers and the agricultural sector face in India. The
agricultural sector in India employs about 60% of its population, yet
accounts for only about 17% of total GDP. Growth in agriculture has
stagnated in comparison to other sectors: last year the agricultural sector
grew at a rate of 2.7%, relative to 11% growth in both the service and
industry sector. Farmers are facing numerous challenges; weather risk and
price risk account for most of them. For example, Cole et al (2008a)
surveyed farmers in two states of India; 89% of farmers reported that
variation in rainfall was the most important risk they faced. Moreover, lack
of information on the market behavior of the agricultural produces,
specifically the future price information pay less return to the farmers.

The proposed conference is an attempt to provide a platform to policymakers,
practitioners, media, bankers and insurers to share issues, learning and
experience and come out with strategies to address such issues. It has also
planned to feature the research results of two studies of Centre for Micro
Finance that try to mitigate such risks- the first is an evaluation of a
weather insurance product in Gujarat and the second is an experiment with
future prices. The Principal Investigators for these projects will be
present to present results, including Professor Shawn Cole of Harvard
Business School.

 The broad outline of the conference

    * Risk Mitigation in Agriculture and Current Strategies
    * Managing Yield Risk (Presentation of the Weather Insurance study)
    * Managing Price Risk (Presentation on the Future Prices Study)
    * Moving Forward

The seminar has no cost to participants and will be held at SEWA Hall in
Ahmedabad on Tuesday August 11th.  More details will be provided to those
who register.  Please contact Amulya Krishna Champatiray
amulyakrishna.champatiray at ifmr.ac.in  with regards to your participation.
Please register before Thursday August 6th.

We look forward to hearing from you and to your participation in the
seminar.

Sincerely,
Alex Kobishyn
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