This publication is intended to be a supplement to the FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin 86 “Strategies for Crop Insurance Planning” and in particular to provide insight into some of the more recent developments in terms of new insurance products and programmes. The bulletin argues that despite the limited experience with some of these products, they will create an opportunity to offer practical solutions to many of the barriers to classic crop insurance for small-scale, dispersed farmers in less developed areas of the world.

The purpose of this book is to provide an introductory overview of crop and forestry insurance. In doing so it opens by defining the boundaries for these types of insurance products. The setting of boundaries is very deliberate. It is intended to assist those interested in exploring and exploiting this financial mechanism to do so in a realistic and satisfactory manner.

Secondly, this booklet sets out how to proceed with planning for crop insurance, within the established boundaries.

While some of the example material is taken from developed agriculture and forestry, the basic target group of readers is expected to be those concerned with crop and forest risk management in developing parts of the world. As such, the booklet is largely targeted at:

• Farmer unions, officials and members;
• Producer/commodity groups;
• Processors, marketing firms and others contracting with farmer producers;
• Officials of Ministries of Agriculture, Planning, Commerce and Health;
• Bankers with farming and forestry clients;
• Insurers with farming and forestry clients