Under the supervision of the Department of Financial Institutions of Bangladesh Bank, Green Delta Insurance recently organized a workshop on the importance of index-based agricultural insurance for the Haor region at the CIRDAP center.

The workshop was inaugurated with the welcome speech of Ms. Farzanah Chowdhury, MD & CEO of Green Delta Insurance Company Limited (GDIC). In her inaugurating speech, she expressed her concern regarding the misery of people in flood prone area and also mentioned that bringing the farmers living in Haor area can increase the penetration of insurance also ensure the contribution of rural sector in national economy and eventually increase the contribution of agriculture in national GDP.

“This initiative can help the country to achieve the SDG goals in the long run through establishing Agriculture Insurance in the whole country,” said Ms. Farzanah Chowdhury. Later, she highlighted the journey of Green Delta Insurance Company Limited from 2015 to till date while mentioning the milestones achieved in Crop Insurance and Livestock Insurance throughout the country.

Followed by the inauguration speech, Ministry of Finance (MoF) and Financial Institution Division (FID) also expressed their interest in establishing Crop Insurance across Bangladesh. And as MoF and FID has directed, the initiative will start by having a yearlong pilot project in North Eastern Haor area of Bangladesh.

Md. Asadul Islam, Senior Secretary of Financial Institution Division, MoF said, “Government and other organizations should come forward to protect the farmers and provide the aid in form of Insurance through measuring the delivery costs and opportunity costs of other financial aids that the government is already providing.”

“In “Mujib Borsho” the government has targeted to increase the insurance penetration to 1% and we should start with this project to step forward with the aim to be “developed” country by 2041. And in this process, Private public partnership approach should be taken to achieve this target,” he added.

Agriculture Insurance is highly subsidized in the whole world and practiced under micro-insurance category. The natural calamities affect the balance of payment of government every year and also puts food security at stake. But the agriculture sector of Bangladesh has been moving forward with a lot of improvements not only in ensuring production of staple food but also other varieties of Agri-production countrywide.

Md. Zafar Iqbal ndc, Additional Secretary, Financial Institutions Division, MoF, Mohammad Iftekhar Hossain, Deputy Secretary, Financial Institution Division, MoF, S.M Ibrahim Hossain, ACII (UK), Chief Faculty Member, Bangladesh Insurance Academy, Surajit Ghosh, Regional Researcher, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Dr. Shameem Hassan Bhuiyan, Chief Advisor, Save Earth Climate Services Limited, Mr. Shubasish Barua, Head of Impact Business and EVP & Mr. Ali Tareque Parvez, SVP, Agriculture Team, Impact Business, GDIC also expressed their opinion at the event.

About Green Delta Insurance Company (GDIC):

GDIC is one of the leading private non-life insurance companies in Bangladesh. GDIC was incorporated on 14 December 1985 as a public limited company, under the Companies’ Act 1913 and its operation started on 1st January 1986, with a paid-up capital of BDT 30 million.

Green Delta is also the 1st Insurance Company in Bangladesh to have an equity partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of World Bank Group. It is also the first non-life insurance company from Bangladesh to introduce the retail insurance department. The department was created with the motto ‘Insurance for All’.