Kagondu Njagi Thomson Reuters Foundation July 18, 2014 MURANG’A, Kenya (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Coffee, once a reliable cash crop in Kenya, has been hard hit by the country's erratic weather patterns. Some farmers have swapped to more climate-resistant crops; others struggle through, making barely enough to live on. But for a growing number of Kenyan coffee farmers, an insurance plan that protects their harvest against losses to extreme weather and weather-related ailments is making coffee growing a less bitter experience. In collaboration with international institutions such as the Foundation for Sustainable Development, the World Bank, the Rockefeller Foundation and the U.K.'s Department for International Development, Kenyan insurance companies have over the past few years put in place index-based weather insurance to provide a financial cushion for farmers who lose crops due to flooding, drought, or other climate-linked disasters. “Agricult...