Colombia’s national government has contracted five parametric agricultural insurance policies covering 14,402 smallholder farmers across Sucre, Córdoba, Cundinamarca, Meta and Chocó, with protection extending to as many as 41,600 people in farming households. The policies provide up to $20.14 million in coverage against drought and excess rainfall as Colombia prepares for the anticipated effects of El Niño in the second half of 2026.

The policies took effect August 1, 2026, giving participating departments a financial mechanism designed to respond more quickly when severe weather thresholds are reached.

“Preparing for El Niño means acting before disasters strike. Through this collaboration between the national government, the five participating departments and international partners, we are providing smallholder farmers with the financial protection they need to manage climate risks and protect their livelihoods.” – Lucy Inés García Montes, Governor of Sucre

The initiative is led by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR) and FINAGRO, in coordination with the governments of the five participating departments.

The program was delivered through the Tripartite Agreement Programme, a public-private partnership involving the Insurance Development Forum (IDF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), with financing channeled through the InsuResilience Solutions Fund (ISF).

How parametric insurance works

Unlike conventional agricultural insurance, which generally requires an assessment of physical losses before a claim can be paid, the policies use a satellite-derived Water Balance Index monitored at the municipal level.

The index compares current conditions with historical data to identify periods of severe drought or excess rainfall. When predetermined thresholds are exceeded, payments are triggered automatically, potentially allowing affected farmers to receive financial support without waiting for individual loss assessments.

The product was co-designed by MADR with an IDF-member consortium comprising Guy Carpenter, Swiss Re, AXA Climate, Munich Re, insurtech company Raincoat and Colombian insurer La Previsora.

The consortium members and ISF co-financed the initiative, while the first-year premium was jointly funded by the Colombian government and ISF.

First departmental use of parametric insurance

The program represents the first use of parametric insurance by departmental governments in Colombia as a tool for agricultural risk management, according to the organizations involved.

For participating departments, the coverage is intended to provide a source of rapid financing following severe climate events while reducing reliance on emergency public funds. The initiative is also designed to establish the technical, legal and financial foundations for expanding parametric agricultural insurance to additional departments.

José Fernando Sánchez, senior vice president of Guy Carpenter Colombia and an IDF member, said the consortium’s participation demonstrated the potential of public-private collaboration to protect livelihoods and strengthen Colombia’s insurance market.

Dr. Annette Detken, head of the InsuResilience Solutions Fund, said climate-risk insurance can help smallholder farmers and rural communities recover more quickly from drought and excess rainfall.

The UNDP worked with MADR and FINAGRO to integrate the insurance policies into Colombia’s broader agricultural risk-management framework. Its work included supporting product development and strengthening the institutional capacity of departmental governments to adopt parametric insurance.

The program comes as Colombia seeks to strengthen financial tools for managing agricultural exposure to increasingly volatile weather conditions. By using predefined climate indicators rather than conventional claims assessments, parametric coverage is designed to provide liquidity soon after a qualifying event and help farmers maintain their livelihoods and productive capacity.

Building a model for climate-risk financing

The five policies cover farmers in departments with different agricultural profiles and climate exposures, creating a multi-region test of how satellite-based insurance can operate within Colombia’s decentralized agricultural risk-management system.

The initiative’s backers say the experience could provide a foundation for scaling parametric insurance to other parts of the country, while building local government capacity to identify, finance and manage climate risks.

For smallholder farmers, the immediate benefit is financial protection against weather events that can damage crops and undermine household income. For governments and insurers, the program offers a way to shift part of the financial burden of climate-related agricultural losses away from emergency response and toward pre-arranged risk financing.

The Insurance Development Forum is a public-private partnership co-chaired by UNDP and the World Bank Group that brings insurance expertise together with public policy and development priorities to strengthen resilience to disasters.

Headline photo by Frank Meriño via Pexels)

Over 400 human rights defenders have been killed since 2016. In most cases by rural mafias and drug traffickers. Under the Duque administration, coca harvests have reached all-time records. Local farmers who resist growing the crop; the raw ingredient for cocaine production, face intimidation and assassination by rural mafia enforcers, and there is almost a consensus that the government has failed to provide adequate protection.

The letter sent to Secretary Pompeo reads as follows. A PDF version can be downloaded here.

Dear Secretary Pompeo,

As the coronavirus pandemic exposes and magnifies existing problems in each of the countries it ravages, we are particularly concerned that it is affecting the safety of Colombia’s brave human rights defenders and social leaders who are putting their lives on the line to build lasting peace.

We write to ask you to actively urge the Duque Administration to consider recommitting to implementing the historic 2016 peace accords and protecting Colombia’s endangered human rights defenders whose vulnerability has only increased during the COVID-19 quarantine.

Colombia is now the most dangerous country in the world for human rights defenders. Over 400 human rights defenders have been murdered since the signing of the peace accords – a loss of committed and valiant civic leaders that Colombia cannot afford. The Colombian government’s slowness in implementing the peace accords, its failure to bring the civilian state into the conflict zones, and its ongoing inability to prevent and prosecute attacks against defenders have allowed this tragedy to go unchecked. This appears to have intensified as illegal armed groups take advantage of the pandemic while the government fails to respond, further increasing the vulnerability of targeted rights defenders and local leaders.

For example, on March 19, three armed men entered a meeting where farmers were discussing voluntary coca eradication agreements and killed community leader Marco Rivadeneira. He promoted peace and coca substitution efforts in his community, represented his region in the guarantees working group to protect human rights defenders, and was a member of the national human rights network Coordinación Colombia Europa Estados Unidos. Afro-Colombian, indigenous, and poor farming communities like the San José de Apartadó peace community continue to suffer and are even more vulnerable from the unchecked presence of illegal armed actors in their territories.

Marco Rivadeneira was one of 23 social leaders killed between March 15 and April 24, during the first weeks of Colombia’s pandemic lockdown. According to the Colombian NGO, Instituto de Estudios para el Desarrollo y la Paz – INDEPAZ, in the first six months of 2020, 153 social leaders and defenders were killed in Colombia.

To stop this tragedy, we ask you to firmly urge the Duque Administration to consider the following:

• • Improve protection of human rights defenders and social leaders, starting with effective investigations of attacks and threats against them, identifying those who ordered these crimes and publicly presenting the outcomes of these investigation.
  • Develop a road map for protection in consultation with defenders in the guarantees working group, including for pandemic-related challenges such as the need for personal protective equipment.
  • Fund and implement collective protection measures with differentiated ethnic and gender approaches in consultation with communities through the National Protection Unit. Collective measures agreed to with Afro-descendant and indigenous communities’ authorities must be guaranteed. The self-protection mechanisms of the San José de Apartadó peace community and similar humanitarian zones should be respected, including the support provided by international accompaniers, even during the pandemic.
  • Dismantle the paramilitary successor networks involved in drug trafficking, which fuel much of the violence against human rights defenders and social leaders. The government must honor its commitment to regularly convene the National Commission of Security Guarantees, which was established by the accords to develop and implement plans to dismantle illegal groups and protect communities, social leaders, and ex-combatants.
  • Effectively investigate, prosecute, and present results about these paramilitary and criminal networks through the Attorney General’s special investigative unit. We welcome the new agreement between the Colombian Attorney General’s Office and the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia to train prosecutors and investigators in aggressively addressing these human rights crimes. It is critical the State end impunity in the murders, disappearances, assaults and threats against human rights defenders, social leaders, land rights and environmental activists, journalists, trade unionists and other defenders.
  • Swiftly hold accountable Colombian Army intelligence members, including at the highest ranks, who ordered and carried out mass surveillance on 130 journalists (including U.S. reporters), human rights defenders, political leaders, and military whistleblowers. The U.S. should also ensure that U.S. security and intelligence assistance does not assist, aid or abet such illegal surveillance, now or in the future.
  • Vigorously implement the peace accords, including by adequately funding the transitional justice system, fully implementing the Ethnic Chapter, delivering on commitments for protection for ex-combatants and productive projects to reintegrate them into civilian life, and honoring commitments for truth, justice, reparations, and guarantees of non-repetition for victims of the conflict.

We urge you, Mr. Secretary, to ensure that all agencies of the United States speak with one clear voice to condemn these ever-escalating murders and to press the Duque Administration to take the necessary steps to identify and prosecute the intellectual authors of these crimes and dismantle the criminal structures that protect them.

Finally, we urge you to continue to provide valuable U.S. assistance to Colombia to implement the peace accords, provide humanitarian assistance for Venezuelan refugees and refugee receiving communities, and address the health and food security crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. should also take advantage of opportunities provided by the peace accords to carry out sustainable and lasting eradication of illegal crops by working with communities to replace coca with legal livelihoods and by dismantling trafficking networks.

Thank you for your attention to these important concerns in this difficult time.

94 House members signed the letter. Their names can be seen here.

The announcement, which came during the Asia Fruit Logistica trade show last week in Hong Kong, represents another milestone in the Andean nation’s push to export more avocados, a crop that has been hailed for its potential to spur growth in the Colombian agriculture sector in the coming years.

Last year, Colombia finalized all the red tape and pest-control requirements to begin exporting avocados to the United States, by far the largest consumption market in the world. Farmers in the country are expected to see a significant increase in the volume of the green, expensive fruit that they ship to U.S. stores over the next 18 months.

The World Avocado Organization, an industry group representing producing companies as well as high-volume exporting and importing countries, also highlighted the potential for Colombian producers to sell their crop — especially the coveted Hass variety of avocados — to European nations, where 510 million kilograms of avocados were sold in 2017, per the group’s figures.

“Hass avocado production is growing at a tremendous rate in Colombia,” said Daniel Bustamante, vice chairman of the World Avocado Organization. “At the same time, the consumption of avocados in Europe is growing at an immense pace.”

READ MORE: The Colossal U.S. Market Is Now Officially Open to Colombian Avocado Growers

The Washington-based organization praised several Colombian producers of Hass avocados that are already members of the WOA, including Fruity Green, Cartama-Avofruit S.A., and Westfalia Colombia.

“Avocado production in Colombia has experienced rapid growth over the past few years, where volumes have grown by 550% a year between 2012 and 2016,” said Xavier Equihua, CEO of the World Avocado Organization. He added that “we look forward to working with them on expanding avocado supply and consumption.”

Climate scientists have long observed the adverse impacts of global warming on forest tree and plant species in tropical regions, which force upslope migrations as these species struggle to repopulate and stay within their narrow temperature comfort zones.

Now, a trio of tropical biologists have shifted their forest research techniques to the rural farming regions of the Peruvian tropical Andes and the warming impact on two dietary staples of Latin America — potatoes and corn.

“If people can’t live in these rural areas because of reduced food production, they will move to the cities and you will have more urban slums.” – Kenneth Feeley, biologist at the University of Miami

Their findings, published last month in the journal Global Change Biology, are grim, portending a difficult path to rural agricultural adaptation and drastically reduced crop yields at a time of growing populations and food insecurity.

“For these crops, which are representative of other crops grown in the tropics, it’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t outcome,” said Kenneth Feeley, a tropical biologist at the University of Miami and a study co-author. “If farmers ignore climate change and keep farming the same fields they always have, we find it’s going to be disastrous for these crops.”

The researchers, led by biologist Richard Tito, a native Quechua Indian, found that, with a temperature increase as small as 1.3 degrees C to 2.6 degrees C, nearly all the corn plants died when grown at the same elevations as previous years and generations — either eaten by birds or ridden with pests.

When the same crop was grown at a higher elevation in order to stay within its temperature comfort zone, the changing soils had an impact. Plants survived with fewer pests, but the crop yield and corn quality was reduced and thus the market value was diminished.

More than 4,000 varieties of native potatoes grow in the Andean highlands, and many Andean people rely heavily on potato production. (Photo credit: Saúl M. Tito.)

The climate impact on potato farmers was worse. They are already farming on mountain tops, so migrating higher is not an option. With the same temperature increases, the potato plants survived, but the tuber production was greatly deformed and reduced to the point of virtually no market value.

With both crops, only local fertilizers like manure were used, and no pesticides; rural farmers don’t have the funds for the agricultural tools commonly available to large-scale farming. Weed control was done by hand, also simulating the conditions of rural farmers.

The researchers said they expected corn and potato farmers in Andean regions of Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia to experience the same challenges.

This field research took place over one growing season in the remote Huamburque area in the southern Peruvian department of Ayachucho in the Andean Amazon basin. Elevations ranged between 3,000 and 4,000 meters. Crops grown there support rural nearby villages, but a portion of the yield is also sold in large population centers such as Lima and Cusco.

The researchers said they expected corn and potato farmers in Andean regions of Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia to experience the same challenges.

“We need to do more experiments in more places with more crops,” Feeley said. “But there is no reason to think these results are unique. We’re already hearing about farmers moving their coffee and chocolate crops higher upslope because of warming temperatures.”

For Tito, who grew up in the Peruvian Andes and for whom Spanish is his second language, this research held a special importance. Agricultural experiments related to climate change are often done in greenhouses under controlled conditions, but Tito was able to gain the trust of the Andean farmers and conduct the research in their fields under actual climatic conditions.

“I am a member of the local community and I know the study area, the local farmers and their rich traditional knowledge,” said Tito, who recently received his PhD from the Instituto de Biologia at the Universisdade Federal de Uberlandia in Brazil. “Because the population is skyrocketing, climate is changing and the impact on food production is a real threat, a real motivation for me in this research is to recommend effective management strategies.”

Severe attacks by stem-borer caterpillars on potato plants have grown under warmer temperatures. (Photo credit: Richard Tito)

Feeley said that for these rural farmers in remote Andean regions that are difficult to access, there are some options. Peru has an enormous variety of corn and potatoes, and he recommended farmers try shifting to varieties that may be more tolerant of warming temperatures.

“We’re already hearing about farmers moving their coffee and chocolate crops higher upslope because of warming temperatures.” – Kenneth Feeley

Because of limited funds, these farmers aren’t likely to buy commercial fertilizer, pesticides, or genetically modified seeds (GMOs). Irrigation is also unlikely.

Peru’s international agricultural center also studies potato production and is actively looking for solutions to protect crops from climate change. Feeley said he hopes experts there will reach out to remote, rural farmers with assistance.

“It’s always important to stress that climate change is having and going to have real impacts on lots of people through food,” Feeley said. “And what we found is that relatively small changes in temperature can have a huge effect on the livelihoods and health of millions of people.

“If people can’t live in these rural areas because of reduced food production, they will move to the cities and you will have more urban slums. Rural farmers are going to need help adapting. We really want to avoid more climate refugees moving around within countries.”

Justin Catanoso is a regular contributor to Mongabay and a professor of journalism at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. Follow him on Twitter: @jcatanoso. This article was originally published by Mongabay. 

Banco Agrario (Banagrario), a state-run development bank that aims to finance projects and offer services tied to agriculture, livestock, fishing, forestry, and other rural activities, also had its long-term foreign currency and long-term local currency issuer default ratings affirmed at BBB. Fitch changed the outlook on its ratings from negative to stable.

“Banagrario’s viability rating is highly influenced by the bank’s business model and its low, although
improving, asset quality,” stated Fitch Ratings in its assessment. The agency added that Banagrario’s rating was moderately influenced by its consistent profitability, high income diversification, strong capital position, and low cost funding structure.

“In Fitch’s views, Banagrario’s business model is consistent with its key role for the development of
the government’s agricultural policy,” stated Fitch. “The bank maintains a clear focus and a strong franchise in the small and medium-sized agricultural producer markets. However, its market share in the Colombian banking system is moderate, at 3.2% of total loans and 2.5% of total deposits. In the agency’s opinion these elements strengthen the bank’s franchise in its specific segment but limit the scope of its business model and challenge the asset quality metrics.”

Fitch also noted that, while Banagrario displayed improving asset quality in 2016, it continues to lags the rest of the nation’s banking industry while its net profits also decreased last year and it remains tied to Colombia’s higher-risk agriculture sector.

But on the positive side of the ledger, according to Fitch Ratings, the Bogotá-based institution has achieved high income diversification — through stable income “generated by valuation of held-to-maturity instruments” — and lowered its non-performing loans ratio to 5.89% on the strength of an improved collections process.

“Banagrario’s profitability is consistent and supports a stable internal capital generation and good
capital levels,” stated Fitch Ratings. “The bank’s profitability is underpinned by high income diversification, as an important proportion of stable income is generated by valuation of held-to-maturity instruments. In Fitch’s opinion, Banagrario’s profitability is sustainable in the medium term but remains sensitive to changes in asset quality.”

To help ensure that the investment leads to real-world efficiency improvements, Yara International will train farmers in “precision farming techniques” that help reduce water use and carbon emissions. Both stakeholders expect this initiative to make fertilizers available at lower prices in the local markets, strengthen the competitiveness of for area farmers, and generally enhance food production.

“Meeting food demand for a growing global population with limited land and water resources requires access to high-quality fertilizers and focused work to improve resource efficiency,” said Torgeir Kvidal, chief financial officer of Yara International. “Improving access to value-added crop nutrition solutions is an effective way for Yara to contribute to improving global food security, while at the same time reducing the climate footprint of agriculture.”

Sergio Pimenta, IFC’s director for manufacturing, agribusiness, and services, says that he expects this investment to lead to more jobs in Colombia while also providing environmental benefits. “This investment is in line with IFC’s strategic priorities in the Latin America and African regions” said Pimenta. “It will support increased availability of higher-quality fertilizers at more affordable cost, support ‘climate-smart’ farming and create jobs in Brazil, Colombia, and Zambia.”

The news came amid an avocado shortage in the country that was causing prices to spike, and the main hurdle to entry was logistical. Authorities needed to ensure that potentially dangerous pests would not follow Colombian avocados northward and introduce blight in the United States. The USDA’s original analysis, for example, noted the need for Colombia to upgrade certain procedural and monitoring safeguards within its growing and supply chain.

Bu this week, the USDA, through its Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) agency, announced that it overstated that fear due to what seems to be a clerical error. A more recent risk assessment has revealed that the perceived threat presented by a pest called the pink hibiscus mealybug was unfounded.

“We have subsequently determined that growing conditions for Hass avocados in Colombia, as well as the standard packinghouse practices used to prepare the fruit for commercial export, effectively preclude the pink hibiscus mealybug from following the pathway from Colombia to the continental United States,” said APHIS in a statement.

The confusion came from the fact that the original pest risk assessment released “was not the latest iteration that had been prepared,” said APHIS.

In short, Colombia’s safeguards to prevent this pest are already sufficiently stringent and this was known by officials in October. But the paperwork included in the document reflected outdated info.

So with this realization, the agency has now reopened the comment period that will precede its plan to propose the legal change that will allow Colombian Hass avocados into the United States. While some barriers may still remain, the fact that there is no significant pink hibiscus mealybug risk could streamline the implementation requirements on Colombia’s end before farmers there can begin exporting their avocados to the world’s largest market.

The inclusion of misinformation in the original report, however, has likely delayed the process to some degree. The reopened comment period will now last until February 26, said APHIS. The original comment period, which was opened on October 27, was set to close on December 28.

The first steps made towards allowing the import of Colombian avocados came during a time of shortage. This was largely due to a growers’ strike in Mexico, which produces the bulk of avocados eaten north of the border. Low harvest yields in California also exacerbated the problem and led to a price surge throughout the United States. “We’re seeing fruit out there at double the price it normally would be,” Cythnia Guzman of California-based distributor Nature’s Produce, told CNBC in October.

Though the crisis has eased in the ensuing months, the hunger for avocados has continued to grow in recent years. And at the current rate of demand increase, Mexico and California likely cannot keep up. Nearly 2.2 billion pounds of Hass avocados were shipped in the United States in 2015 — almost double the 1.1 billion in 2011, per the Hass Avocado Board.

Colombia, with its long growing season and large avocado supply, can help fill the demand. “A growing U.S. population and growing Hispanic share of the population, greater awareness of the avocado’s health benefits, year-round availability of fresh, affordable Hass avocados, and greater disposable income have contributed to the increased demand,” said the APHIS in its proposal.