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IMAGE: A trial of drought-tolerant beans in 2016 in Malawi, during one of the worst droughts to hit the nation in three decades.
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Credit: Neil Palmer/International Center for Tropical Agriculture
When drought caused devastating crop losses in Malawi in 2015-2016, farmers in the southeastern African nation did not initially fear for the worst: the government had purchased insurance for such a calamity. But millions of farmers remained unpaid for months because the insurer's model failed to detect the extent of the losses, and a subsequent model audit moved slowly. Quicker payments would have greatly reduced the shockwaves that rippled across the landlocked country.