The International Finance Corporation (IFC) plans to help the government of Azerbaijan boost the competitiveness of the agribusiness sector, Jan van Bilsen, IFC Regional Manager for the South Caucasus, said in an interview with Trend.
He said the agriculture sector, which provides jobs and income for about 40 percent of the population in rural areas, can become more productive and profitable through increased access to finance.
“One way to help this is through agri-insurance, which mitigates the risks involved in agriculture production, such as weather and price volatility. Europe and Central Asia Agri-Finance Advisory Project has worked with Azerbaijan’s authorities to conduct various field surveys with the farmers, to draft a law on agricultural insurance and to develop an agricultural insurance system concept,” he said.
Presently, the International Finance Corporation, together with Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Agriculture and the Financial Markets Supervisory Authority, is working on a project to introduce an agricultural insurance system in the country.
The government of Azerbaijan is inclined to use Turkey’s TARSIM model of agricultural insurance. As part of the work on the project, the IFC is looking for the most appropriate options to introduce this model in Azerbaijan.
In addition, the Azerbaijani Agriculture Ministry continues work on a bill on stimulation of the agricultural insurance.
