The country's livestock sector worth Tk 671 billion is yet to come under insurance facility amid reluctance of private insurers, farmers and the government, depriving millions of entrepreneurs, observed experts at a national-level seminar on Sunday.
They said insurance facility for the farmers could help the livestock sector grow.
They were speaking at a seminar - "Role of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the Enhancement of Livestock Insurance: Our Position and Planning" - organised by the Adarsha Pranisheba Ltd (APL) at a city hotel.
Syed Shahriyar Ahsan, managing director (MD) of the state-run insurer Sadharon Bima Corporation (SBC), presented the keynote, which said the Tk 671-billion livestock sector is now contributing nearly 2.0 per cent to the GDP.
The sector's contribution to total farm GDP is now 16.52 per cent with the active involvement of 10.4 million families. Some 36 per cent of rural families are actively involved in cow rearing, as every family has 2.6 animals on an average.
The paper also said the SBC first launched animal insurance in 1981, which continued until 2008. But for lack of proper knowledge among the farmers as well as some other obstacles, it could not flourish commercially.
Only 691 insurance policies were issued for 5,226 animals, amounting to Tk 100 million, of which 145 claims were found until 2008.
The SBC MD said later NGOs and microfinance institutions (MFIs) also launched insurance like 'Participatory Livestock Compensatory Fund'.
At the same time, the PKSF - with a US$2.0 million loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) - implemented such projects through 40 MFIs on a pilot basis.
He informed that Phoenix Insurance and Green Delta Insurance, with the technical assistance of the APL, are providing livestock insurance on a limited scale.
Launching complete insurance facility for the sector could commercially make both the insurers and the entrepreneurs benefitted.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution-related technologies, like biometrics, machine learning for animal monitoring, data access, app-based insurance policy, and digitalization of whole insurance system - from issuing policies to realising insurance claims, as well as safe production methods to get rid of anti-mycobacterial resistance, could make the livestock sector one of the vibrant ones in the world, he added.
Fisheries and Livestock Minister S M Rezaul Karim said policies would be formulated to expand insurance facility to the livestock sector within a short period of time. A joint working committee would be formed to sort out the obstacles and opportunities.
Private insurers and big investors should come up to open (non-life) insurance facilities for the livestock sector.
"We need a collective initiative to boost up the insurance system in the sector," he added.
Shamsul Alam, State Minister for Planning and an economist, said the livestock sector has now become a commercial one with a 3.5 per cent growth.
Insurance system is essential to accelerate production, and having insurance facility can maximise utilisation of assets, for which it should be popularised in the livestock sector, he opined.
He added that special importance should be given to awareness campaign to make insurance system sustainable in the sector.
Chairman of Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA) Mohammad Zainul Bari, Executive Committee Member of Bangladesh Insurance Association Mozaffar Hossain Paltu, Fisheries and Livestock Additional Secretary A T M Mustafa Kamal, Director General of Department of Livestock Dr Manzoor Mohammad Shahzada, and APL Managing Director Fida Haque, also spoke on the occasion, among others.
