By Emma Rummey
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This precarious livelihood is common among the hundreds of thousands of small farmers in South Africa. Most can't access any drought cover in a country that feeds the wider region with staples like maize but is increasingly beset by extreme weather on the front lines of climate change.
It's not just the small guys. The problem is acute among larger farmers too. Most can't afford the main commercial cover for drought, known as multi-peril crop insurance (MPCI), or are not offered it by insurers.
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Farmers and insurers alike say the insurance system is broken, at a time when droughts are becoming longer and harsher. Some parts of the country are in their ninth dry year, while a drought across much of the southern African region that began in 2018 left tens of millions of people hungry.
Now a plan has been formulated by insurers and the government for a 3.2 billion rand ($223 million), 10-year state subsidy scheme aimed at fixing the market's problems, according to a South African Insurance Association (SAIA) document seen by Reuters that outlines the previously unreported proposals.
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