Investigating the use of satellite derived rainfall for agricultural insurance in Tanzania
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Date
2009
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Publisher
University of Reading
Abstract
In most African countries, agriculture is mainly rain-fed hence vulnerable to risks
associated with weather and climatic hazards. Excess and inadequate rainfall both
contribute greatly agriculture losses in these developing countries leaving the rural
population poor and lack of food security. Index insurance particularly that uses rainfall
as a proxy for loss is envisaged to relieve the rural farmers from the risks. Index
insurance thus needs real-time availability of weather data. Satellite based rainfall is
therefore sought to be used in order to extend this innovation to other places where
weather stations are not closely available. This study investigated the use of satellite
derived rainfall in agriculture insurance in two zones of Tanzania (north eastern
highlands and south western highlands). The study used satellite products from
TAMSAT archive and TRMM products. Rain gauge data and crop yield data for maize
for Tanzania, altogether covering a period from 1997 to 2007 were also used.
Calibration results for TAMSAT method suggests that -30°C is the optimal threshold
temperature for most months except for January, February and October in some areas.
Further, correlation results between rain gauge and satellite rainfall shows good results
for both north eastern and south-western highlands where the comparison were done.
However, poor correlation results are indicated in April and October for north eastern
highlands. Co-fluctuation of yield and rainfall data was investigated and it was revealed
that there is a good relationship in north-eastern highlands as compared to south
western highlands. These results indicate a high potential of using satellite based
rainfall in agriculture insurance. A general conclusion for using satellite rainfall in
agriculture insurance will better be reached after doing similar and further analysis on
the whole area. The current results can therefore be treated as preliminary to this novel
idea of satellite-rainfall application in agriculture weather index insurance.
Description
Dissertation
Keywords
Weather, Weather index, Rainfall