Ghana is giving a new push behind its new insurance initiative called the Ghana Agriculture Insurance Program (GAIP) for small farmers.

It will help farmers who had been suffering from loss of income as a result of the bad weather conditions that affect their yields, reports All Africa.

Under the system, which was launched last year, farmer pays one-tenth of the total cost of their crops at the beginning of the farming season to GAIP. If there is no rainfall for 12 consecutive days, then the system delivers a payout.

To date 136 smallholder farmers received payouts on claims from GAIP because of the drought in northern Ghana. “On average, farmers who invest 150 dollars in inputs for half a hectare of land could be paid out between 200 to 300 dollars, depending on how severely they were affected by the weather,” reports All Africa.

The program, which is funded by the German government under the Innovative Insurance Products for the Adaptation to Climate Change project, uses data from AWS to ascertain when farmers are affected by the weather, and with payouts being made based on this data.

The initiative is. implemented through a public private partnership between the National Insurance Commission, the Ghana Insurance Association and the German Agency for International Cooperation.