This VoxDevTalk features Paswel Marenya, Adoption and Impact Assessment Economist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), being interviewed about a recent study, “Bundling Genetic and Financial Technologies for More Resilient and Productive Small-scale Agriculture”.
To test solutions that could mitigate the impacts of drought, the study used randomized control trials to test the impact of combining drought-resistant seeds and index insurance in Mozambique and Tanzania.
Results show that combining these two technologies expands their benefits: using the improved seeds reduces insurance costs, and having insurance to begin with counteracts the risk of adopting the seeds. Farmers who use both technologies have greater resilience to drought in the short- and long-term.
Demonstrating the benefits to farmers and informing the scaling-up of the solution-bundling approach was also found to be important.
Listen to the podcast: Combining improved seed varieties and index insurance to address drought losses
Environmental health and biodiversity 