Agriculture is an important industry segment of the global economy in terms of GDP contribution and employment, particularly in many low- and middle-income countries. At a time when population growth drives further demand for food and agricultural raw materials, and the producing sector faces supply challenges and uncertainties from potentially more natural disasters related to climate change, risk management is of ever-growing importance. As experienced in 2007/2008, and to a lesser extent in 2010, production shortfalls in key exporting countries cause immediate responses on global commodity markets and trigger food security crises for many net importers.

The agricultural insurance sector has been adapting to the increasing need for risk transfer and reached a premium volume of close to US$31 billion in 2017 – a threefold increase since 2006. While the large growth in our business allows for a better geographical diversification for global reinsurers and capital markets, it means at the same time higher exposure for specialised local insurers.

Agricultural Risk Transfer comes at the right time, when our industry is optimising covers in well-established markets and expanding in new territories where insurance penetration is low, demand is increasing but product development is challenging and requires high level of expertise. Underwriting agricultural risks has and will continue to be highly complex. Pure actuarial risk pricing methods that rely on limited historical claims data and loss proxies are not sufficient any more to quantify future loss expectations and they require catastrophe risk modelling skills. While learning by doing has largely been the main approach for all stakeholders in our industry, the systematic methods provided in this book form a common standard for risk transfer of crop, livestock, forestry and aquaculture assets in developed as well as in emerging markets.

As the theory is illustrated through comprehensive case studies from our industry, Agricultural Risk Transfer is of equal interest for (re)insurance underwriters, loss adjustors, risk assessors, corporate risk managers, actuaries, catastrophe modellers and fund managers as well as development agencies, government entities, funding and financing institutions, the agricultural supply chain and students in disciplines that relate to our industry. Agricultural Risk Transfer closes the knowledge gap between insurers and reinsurers as well as between academics and our industry. It therefore greatly supports the efforts of our professional associations to exchange experience and best practices among stakeholders in the agricultural risk transfer industry.

I would like to sincerely thank the reviewers for their very helpful comments, including Prof Robert Finger (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland), Prof Barry Barnet (University of Kentucky, USA), Prof Yui Leong (National University of Singapore, Singapore), Dr Auguste Boissonnade (Risk Management Solutions, USA), Michael Owen (Guy Carpenter, Singapore), Claudio Busarello (Swiss Re, Switzerland), Randall Reese (Allianz ART, USA), Charles Stutley (World Bank, UK), Phil Cottle (Forest Re, UK), Dan Fairweather (Willis, UK) and Dr Hervé Castella (Partner Re, Switzerland).

I am equally grateful for the contributions and reviews of different case studies from colleagues and friends in the industry and academia, including Chen Peng (PICC, China), Zhao Wei (AXA Corporate Solutions, China), Prof Long (Ministry of Agriculture, China), Dr Chutatong Charumilind (Thai General Insurance Association), MK Poddar (Agriculture Insurance Company of India), Harini Kannan and Yu Deng (Swiss Re, Singapore), Sonia Rawal (Allianz Re, Singapore), Ulziibold Yadamsuren (National University of Mongolia), SVRK Prabhakar (Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Japan), Mani Upadhyay (AFSC, Canada), Joseph Bradonisio (Guy Carpenter, Canada), Dr Oscar Vergara (AIR Worldwide, USA), StefanoNicolini (Beach Group, USA), Gift Livata (Microensure, Malawi), Daisy Sabao (World Bank, Mozambique), Shadreck Mapfumo (IFC, South Africa), Roman Shynkarenko (Allianz, Australia), Chis Coe (Aon Benfield, UK), Dr Tom Osborne (Ironshore, UK), Julian Roberts (Willis, UK), Hansueli Lusti (Swiss Hail Insurance Company, Switzerland), Dr Olena Sosenko (Agricultural Reinsurance Specialist, Switzerland), Reto J. Schneider (Allianz Re, Switzerland), Maximilian Strobl and Dr Lambert Muhr (Munich Re, Germany), Luis Pulido (Hannover Re, Germany), Dr Juraj Balkovic (International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis, Austria), as well as Dr Marc Wueest, Dr Hans Feyen, Peter Welten, Dr Petra Winter and Lovemore Forichi (all Swiss Re, Switzerland).

Special thanks go to Reto Zihlmann, a master student in agronomy at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, who helped me to generate most of the plots. I am also very grateful to Arnaud de Beaucaron (president of AIAG) and Dr Tom Zacharias (president of NCIS) for writing the foreword of Agricultural Risk Transfer and for all the encouragement. I wish to express my appreciation to my colleagues from the International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group), particularly Vijay Kalovakanda and Utako Saoshiro, for the understanding they showed over my limited ability to participate in field missions during the time writing the book. My sincere gratitude goes to Wiley as the publisher of Agricultural Risk Transfer and specifically, Emily Paul (project editor), Gemma Valler (commissioning editor), Gladys Ganaden (editorial executive), and Sharmila Srinivasan (production editor) for the great support and input to the manuscript.

Last but not least, special thanks go to my wife and children, who have lived with the book for two years, and to our golden retriever, who had shorter walks than usual at times.