As bird flu destroys farms, the federal government, through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, has been urging poultry producers across the country, particularly those with 3,000 birds or more, to take out farm insurance.
This comes after discontent among impacted farmers over compensation led to secrecy among others.
However, for many poultry producers, purchasing insurance to protect their farms is another huge difficulty, as previous buyers’ experiences have not been promising.
As with any area of agricultural production, Kabiru Ibrahim, an architect and former president of the Poultry Farmers Association of Nigeria (PAN), said there was some hesitancy in acquiring insurance cover. “It is definitely vital to insure poultry due of its distinctiveness,” he agreed.
“Most poultry farmers, on the other hand, have displayed apathy about insurance since they believe they have not been adequately reimbursed at some point in the past, and word has passed among them to make them unwilling to engage in the plan,” he said.
Despite repeated recommendations from authorities for poultry farmers to insure their farms with firms against any eventuality, studies from across the states show that the number of poultry farms that have registered with insurance companies is tiny.
Alhaji Umar Usman Kibiya, the state chapter chairman of the PAN in Kano, said the issue of poultry farmers’ reluctance to obtain insurance was a key worry that the association is actively addressing.
Farmers’ reluctance has been attributed to religious or cultural causes, according to Kibiya.
Other reasons for farmers’ refusal to cover their poultry farms, according to him, include their inability to pay the premium charge required by insurance providers, as well as a lack of understanding of what they stand to gain by doing so.
“To fully use the insurance coverage, some insurance firms demand a farmer to pay either a 3% or 4% premium. In that sense, Jaiz Bank recently held a stakeholders’ conference for chicken farmers in the state to educate them on the benefits of the bank’s insurance packages, which are compliant with Islamic tenets,” Kibiya added.
When the state was afflicted by avian influenza in 2013, it was discovered that most chicken farms were run as individual enterprises rather than corporations, according to Alhaji Kabiru Abubakar, a poultry farmer.
He went on to say that the majority of chicken farms lacked business accounts, let alone insurance coverage.
“The problem, in my opinion, is related to the way farmers run and organise their fields. The majority of poultry producers have failed to treat it as a business rather than a pastime.
“Go around, and I bet you, despite possible losses, you’ll be startled to learn that most poultry farms aren’t properly registered, and many don’t even have a name,” he said.
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Malam Musa Usman, a poultry farmer in Kumbutso Local Government, agreed that the authorities involved should launch a significant public awareness campaign on the socio-religious implications of engaging with insurance firms about their farms.
Religious academics, he claims, have already stated that some insurance products are religiously compliant, and farmers can actively participate in them to benefit. He went on to say that only a few chicken producers in the state were aware of the existence of such a thing.
Nanji Gambo-Oke, the PAN’s public relations officer in Plateau State, blamed the apathy on a lack of knowledge about the benefits of insurance in Jos.
“As most of the prevalent poultry-related diseases like Newcastle, infectious bronchitis are not insurance bonds,” Mrs Gambo-Oke added, insurance policies were not all-encompassing. Only a few diseases are included, and most farmers rarely encounter the diseases chosen by the corporations. As a result, farmers are hesitant to get any insurance policy.”
“Layer birds, for example, have a two-year life cycle and a one-year insurance policy. As a result, farmers find it difficult to seek insurance. And those with broilers, whose life cycle is brief, even if they consider insurance, the birds will have passed their danger phase, which is the first three weeks of their lives, before the procedure and bureaucracy of acquiring the required policy is done. As a result, the farmer may choose to ignore or abandon the insurance application procedure. Most farmers, for example, rarely use power, making it difficult to experience such a calamity, so they don’t feel the need to insurance,” she explained.
She also stated that farmers are hesitant since people in this region of the world do not trust insurance firms with claim payment.
Finally, she stated that because farmers spend the majority of their time on their farms, “engaging in this back and forth activities common with Nigerian institutions who are still on manual documentation system can be tiring, so farmers would not give in to activities that would keep them away from their farms for long periods of time.” And, in times of danger or significant loss due to mortality, insurance companies are sluggish to investigate, so we usually bury the infected birds, and when they finally arrive, they will claim that we tampered with evidence.”
Many chicken producers in Niger State do not consider insurance to be necessary to them.
“In Niger State, we cooperate with the National Agricultural Insurance Corporation,” Mohammed Audi Adamu, state secretary of the Chicken Farmers Association, told our correspondent. “But many poultry farmers in the state don’t take it seriously.” Only a few poultry farms are covered by insurance.”
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“For now, there is no appropriate sensitization on the matter of insurance policy,” Adamu said, adding that getting poultry farmers in the state to join in the system would take a lot of work. You are aware that in the North, we do not place a high value on insurance. However, if we can take sensitization seriously, a lot of farmers will join in.”
He did say, however, that a few farmers who signed with the National Agricultural Insurance Corporation had trouble getting compensated when they needed financial help.
“With the current threat of avian flu, now is the best time to seek insurance coverage.” “However, insurance policies do not cover avian flu,” he explained.
