Agricultural insurance can help farmers recover from shocks, protect their livelihoods and adapt to a changing climate. But in many countries, it has struggled to move beyond fragmented, donor-driven pilots and reach lasting scale.

This report, developed under the Financial Resilience in Agriculture initiative, explores how governments can institutionalize agricultural insurance as part of wider national development, climate resilience, financial inclusion and food security agendas. Drawing on international experience and 14 country case studies, it shows that agricultural insurance scales most effectively when governments act as market shapers, aligning policy, regulation, programmes and financing around clear public value objectives.

The report sets out three institutional pathways for transforming agricultural insurance systems: through ministries of agriculture, ministries of finance and centralized government leadership. It offers policymakers and practitioners practical lessons for moving from stand-alone interventions to integrated, scalable systems that strengthen farmer resilience and support long-term agricultural transformation.