From Risk to Resilience: A Decade of PPP Transforming Agricultural Insurance in Uganda
KAMPALA, September 1, 2026 — Ten years ago, a farmer in Uganda who lost a season’s crop to vagaries of nature, such as drought, floods, unpredictable rainfall drought, or pests, had nowhere to run to, to cover the loss. The loss was absolute, not just of income, but often of the capital needed to plant again the following season. Induced by El Niño in 2016, Uganda faced one of the worst drought events in recent years, causing severe food shortage and livestock mortality rates to increase. In response, the Government of Uganda in partnership with the private insurance sector established the Uganda Agriculture Insurance Scheme [UAIS] as a pilot in the financial year 2016/17.
Important to note is that UAIS today runs as a Public-Private Partnership [PPP] between the Government of Uganda, represented by the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development [MoFPED], and the private insurance sector. The primary objective of the scheme is to protect Ugandan farmers against catastrophic production losses brought on by uncontrollable natural disasters [such as drought, floods, and pests], providing a financial safety net sufficient to keep the farmers in business. Additionally, UAIS was designed to make agriculture insurance affordable through premium subsidies and to increase farmers’ access to credit by protecting financial institutions’ agricultural loans against default due to climate change related risks.
Enter Agro Consortium Uganda Limited [AIC]
Agro Consortium Uganda Limited [AIC] is a coalition of 14 private insurance companies licensed to underwrite agriculture insurance in the country, bringing with them the technical expertise, and product design necessary to make agriculture insurance commercially viable at scale. The government of Uganda commits an annual premium subsidy of Shs 5 billion to make premium costs affordable. Through this arrangement, small-scale farmers receive a 50 percent subsidy, large-scale farmers receive a 30 percent subsidy, and farmers residing in designated high-risk geographical locations receive an 80 percent subsidy.
The implementation of UAIS was built around existing rural infrastructure. The scheme is implemented through aggregators, cooperatives, farmer organisations, financial institutions, and the networks of insurance providers already operating countrywide, meeting farmers at points where they already access agronomy and financial services.
A decade later, UIAS has grown into one of Uganda’s most significant PPPs. The numbers tell the story of the scheme’s traction. From a mere 5,000 farmers at the start of the scheme to 265,049 insured farmers by end of FY 2020/21, to over 1 million farmers to date. It is a scale of adoption that reflects not just the reach of the partnership model, but a genuine and growing appetite among Ugandan farmers for protection against the risks they face every planting season.
The challenge
That growth of UIAS has not been without its inflection points. The subsidy that makes insurance affordable has, in three of the last four fiscal years, been exhausted before the second quarter a signal, more than anything, that demand for agriculture insurance in Uganda now outpaces the resources currently allocated to meet it. It is a challenge the scheme’s stakeholders are actively engaging with. As part of the series, theCooperator will explore in more depth this financial challenge.
Worth to note is that ten years on, the UAIS has emerged as a reference point for how PPPs can be structured to deliver agriculture insurance at scale across East Africa and the wider
continent. Peer markets and regional bodies looking to design similar schemes increasingly point to Uganda’s model, its subsidy structure, its use of existing aggregator, cooperatives and financial networks, and the depth of collaboration between government and the insurance sector led by the Insurance Regulatory Authority of Uganda [IRA] as the regulator.
As Uganda looks toward the next decade of agricultural development, AIC, through implementing UAIS, remains committed to expanding the financial safety net to protect beneficiaries from unexpected economic shocks and financial distress, ensuring that no farmer is left to face risks alone. The UAIS is therefore there to build a resilient agricultural sector expected to contribute more to the country’s gross domestic product [GDP] as envisaged in the 10-fold Growth Strategy which aims to push the economy to about US$ 500 billion by 2040 from about US$ 61.3bln in 2024/25.
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