Agricultural Insurance and Risk Management Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Agricultural Insurance Underwriters, Insurance Product Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-RM-038

Before you join: Participants should understand basic insurance terms such as premium, policy, deductible, claim and sum insured, or have equivalent exposure through agricultural lending, farm finance or programme management.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Agricultural insurers, lenders, cooperatives and public programmes must make decisions under volatile weather, crop disease, input costs, commodity prices and uneven farm data. Poorly designed cover can create unaffordable premiums, basis risk, adverse selection and disputed claims. Weak portfolio controls can leave an insurer exposed to concentrated drought, flood or pest losses. Sound agricultural risk management connects farm-level exposure analysis with product design, technical pricing, underwriting, reinsurance and claims controls.

This course examines the full risk cycle for agricultural insurance portfolios. Participants assess production, weather, market and institutional risks; build risk registers; evaluate farm and portfolio data; and distinguish indemnity, area-yield, weather-index and revenue insurance structures. They apply underwriting criteria, pure premium and burning-cost methods, reinsurance structures, loss-adjustment procedures, IBNR estimation and stress testing. Attention is given to basis risk, subsidy administration, fair customer treatment, fraud indicators, exposure accumulation and reporting for management decisions.

Teaching combines focused instructor briefings with insurer, lender and agricultural programme cases. Participants work with realistic farm, weather, claims and portfolio data to test assumptions, calculate indemnities, assess reinsurance needs and respond to severe weather scenarios. Group discussions examine the trade-offs between farmer affordability, insurer sustainability, timely claims payment and data quality. Each participant leaves with a practical agricultural insurance risk-management pack containing templates, models and a 90-day implementation roadmap for use in their own portfolio or programme.

The course is suited to professionals responsible for agricultural lending, insurance products, underwriting, claims, reinsurance, risk, finance or programme delivery. It is particularly relevant where organisations serve smallholders, commercial farms, agribusiness supply chains or government-supported insurance schemes.

What you will be able to do

  • Assess agricultural production, weather, market and institutional risks using ISO 31000 principles
  • Build a risk register with likelihood, impact, controls, ownership and residual exposure
  • Evaluate farm, weather, satellite and exposure data for insurance product decisions
  • Design indemnity, area-yield, weather-index and revenue insurance policy structures
  • Calculate technical premium components using burning-cost and expected-loss methods
  • Structure underwriting, retention and reinsurance decisions for agricultural portfolios
  • Apply crop-loss adjustment, indemnity calculation and fraud-screening procedures
  • Produce a portfolio stress test, risk dashboard and implementation action plan

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Make defensible underwriting and product decisions using documented risk evidence
  • Calculate agricultural premium and indemnity components with greater confidence
  • Recognise basis risk and adverse selection before product rollout
  • Discuss reinsurance requirements credibly with brokers and reinsurers
  • Present agricultural portfolio risks clearly to senior management

For your organisation

  • Improved alignment between policy terms, farm exposures and claims outcomes
  • Better technical pricing discipline for crops, zones and policy conditions
  • Earlier identification of drought, flood and concentration exposures
  • More consistent claims assessment and reduced potential for fraud
  • Clearer management reporting on risk appetite, reinsurance and corrective actions

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can identify agricultural insurance risks and document them within a structured risk framework.

  • Production, price, weather and institutional risks mapped to farm income
  • Risk register records causes, controls, owners, indicators and residual exposure
  • ISO 31000 context statement defines objectives, boundaries and decision criteria
  • Likelihood-impact scoring distinguishes frequency, severity, velocity and control effectiveness
  • Correlation matrix identifies drought, price and credit concentration effects
  • Risk appetite statements set tolerances for insurers, lenders and cooperatives

Participants can assess the quality and suitability of data used for agricultural insurance decisions.

  • Peril definitions separate named-peril, multiple-peril and all-risk policy triggers
  • Historical yield cleaning addresses missing observations, outliers and unit changes
  • Weather station representativeness tested using distance, elevation and microclimate differences
  • Satellite vegetation indices compared with crop-stage and ground-truth observations
  • Exposure databases reconcile insured area, crop, location, season and tenure
  • Basis risk sources documented for index products and policyholders

Participants can select and specify appropriate agricultural insurance structures for defined risks.

  • Named-peril covers specify insured events, exclusions, deductibles and waiting periods
  • MPCI design links approved yields, guarantees, planting dates and prevent-plant provisions
  • Area-yield insurance uses trigger yields, reference units and payout scales
  • Weather-index structures select rainfall windows, strike points and exit thresholds
  • Revenue insurance combines yield guarantees, price elections and harvest-price provisions
  • Policy wording tests insurable interest, moral hazard and adverse selection

Participants can apply agricultural underwriting criteria, acceptance rules and exposure controls.

  • Farm proposal review verifies acreage, crop history, husbandry and title
  • Zoning rules group risks by climate, soil, irrigation and access
  • Underwriting inspections identify irrigation condition, pest controls and management practices
  • Sum-insured calculations distinguish input-cost, expected-revenue and replacement-value bases
  • Acceptance authorities align referral limits with treaty and portfolio constraints
  • Anti-selection controls compare declared data against independent field and registry sources

Participants can calculate and review the main components of agricultural insurance rates.

  • Pure premium estimates combine expected frequency, severity and exposure units
  • Burning-cost analysis adjusts claims history for trend, development and exposure
  • Rate relativities reflect crop, zone, irrigation, deductible and sum insured
  • Monte Carlo simulation tests aggregate losses under correlated weather scenarios
  • Expense loadings, profit margins and catastrophe loads form gross rates
  • Rate adequacy review compares technical price, market price and affordability

Participants can assess retention needs and structure reinsurance protection for agricultural portfolios.

  • Quota-share treaties allocate premium, losses, commission and underwriting result
  • Surplus treaties match retention lines to sums insured and capacity
  • Excess-of-loss layers define attachment, limit, reinstatements and aggregate protection
  • Probable maximum loss estimates inform retention and catastrophe reinsurance purchase
  • Treaty wordings align hours clauses, event definitions and claims cooperation
  • Counterparty assessment reviews reinsurer security, collateral and recoverables concentration

Participants can manage agricultural claims from notification through evidence review and indemnity payment.

  • Claims notification protocols capture event date, location, crop stage and evidence
  • Loss-adjustment plans schedule sampling, inspections, photographs and grower interviews
  • Crop-cutting procedures use quadrat selection, weighing, moisture correction and extrapolation
  • Remote-sensing evidence supports triage, damaged-area estimation and inspection prioritisation
  • Indemnity calculations apply deductibles, limits, underinsurance and salvage rules
  • Fraud red flags compare claim timing, yield history and duplicate documentation

Participants can monitor agricultural insurance performance and quantify severe-loss scenarios.

  • Exposure accumulation maps aggregate insured values by peril zone and season
  • Loss-ratio monitoring separates attritional claims, large losses and catastrophe experience
  • IBNR estimates apply chain-ladder development factors to reported claims
  • Scenario analysis quantifies drought, flood and commodity-price shock impacts
  • Stress tests assess solvency, liquidity, reinsurance recoveries and covenant headroom
  • Risk dashboards report key risk indicators, thresholds, actions and owners

Participants can establish distribution and governance controls suited to agricultural insurance delivery.

  • Distribution models compare agents, cooperatives, banks, aggregators and digital channels
  • Premium collection controls reconcile cash, mobile money, subsidies and refunds
  • Disclosure documents explain trigger mechanics, exclusions, complaints and claims evidence
  • Treating-customers-fairly tests identify unsuitable sales and misleading product representations
  • Data governance assigns consent, retention, access and quality-accountability requirements
  • Subsidy administration reconciles eligibility, government payments, audit trails and arrears

Participants can prioritise practical improvements to agricultural insurance risk controls and reporting.

  • Portfolio diagnostic combines risk register, exposure map, loss ratios and controls
  • Product improvement priorities rank basis risk, affordability, claims speed and viability
  • Control action plans assign owners, milestones, resources and assurance evidence
  • Key risk indicators establish thresholds, escalation routes and management responses
  • Board reporting translates technical results into decisions on capacity and appetite
  • 90-day implementation roadmap sequences data, underwriting, reinsurance and claims actions

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Agricultural insurance risk register template
  2. Farm underwriting assessment checklist
  3. Technical premium pricing model
  4. Agricultural reinsurance structure worksheet
  5. Crop claims and indemnity calculation checklist
  6. 90-day agricultural risk management roadmap

Who should attend

  • Agricultural Insurance Underwriters — need consistent farm selection, terms and referral decisions
  • Insurance Product Managers — design viable cover suited to crop and customer risks
  • Risk Managers — monitor accumulation, catastrophe exposure and control effectiveness
  • Agricultural Lending Managers — connect insurance quality with credit portfolio protection
  • Claims Managers and Adjusters — improve evidence gathering, loss measurement and indemnity decisions
  • Government and NGO Programme Managers — oversee subsidised agricultural insurance schemes responsibly

Skills and tools covered

Agricultural risk assessmentInsurance product designTechnical premium pricingCrop claims adjustmentReinsurance structuringPortfolio stress testing

Tools and standards

ISO 31000, Monte Carlo simulation, Chain-ladder method, Crop-cutting method

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce methods, followed by case work based on crop insurers, agricultural lenders, cooperatives and public insurance schemes. Participants analyse sample farm records, weather series, yield histories, policy wordings, claims files and portfolio reports. Group exercises apply risk registers, premium calculations, reinsurance structures and stress tests to realistic scenarios. A claims simulation examines evidence, crop-loss measurement and indemnity decisions. Individual application planning converts course methods into priorities for each participant's portfolio or programme.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand basic insurance terms such as premium, policy, deductible, claim and sum insured, or have equivalent exposure through agricultural lending, farm finance or programme management. Familiarity with spreadsheet calculations and reading basic financial or operational reports is useful. The course assumes participants can discuss crop production cycles, farm operations or agricultural value chains at a practical level. Prior actuarial training, advanced statistics, coding, satellite-imagery expertise or previous reinsurance experience is not required. Technical calculations are taught step by step using course materials.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should understand basic insurance, agricultural lending or farm finance concepts. You do not need actuarial qualifications, advanced statistics or previous reinsurance experience.

Bring a laptop if possible, as some calculations and case materials are easier to review electronically. Participants may also bring non-confidential examples of policies, risk reports or portfolio issues from their work.

It is designed for insurance, lending, risk, claims, reinsurance and programme professionals working with agricultural customers or portfolios. It suits both commercial and public-sector agricultural insurance settings.

The course focuses on agricultural perils, farm data, crop insurance structures, weather exposure, basis risk and crop-loss adjustment. General risk concepts are applied directly to insurance products and portfolios serving agriculture.

Participants can use the risk register, underwriting checklist, pricing model and action roadmap to review an existing product or portfolio. The methods also support discussions with reinsurers, distributors, lenders and senior management.

The programme provides about 32.5 contact hours, normally delivered from 08:30 to 16:30 each day. Time is divided between instructor input, worked cases, group analysis, calculations, claims scenarios and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

Related courses in Risk Management