Despite the efforts of insurance companies, brokers and governments, millions of smallholder farmers in Africa remain unprotected against financial and agricultural risk and the associated fluctuations in household income. Smallholder farmers have limited awareness of and access to insurance products, and those who can access insurance still favour traditional, often informal, means of risk management over insurance, with the cost of insurance and limited cover being two of the main reasons. At the same time, insurance companies have no incentive to put real effort into developing and marketing demand-driven agricultural microinsurance products. In countries such as India, Uganda or Kenya premium subsidies have helped to scale agricultural insurance to a certain extent, but without subsidies, costs and premiums remain too high and most products are financially unsustainable.