Mumbai: ICICI Lombard General Insurance has launched a weather insurance scheme to protect the farmers.

The company has modelled ''rainfall insurance'' policies in association with the World Bank, ICICI Bank and Basix, a micro-finance institution, according to a press release. The insurance premium will be decided on a case-to-case basis depending on the geography and the risk associated.

"Weather insurance does not suffer from the issues of moral hazard, adverse selection and high administrative costs of traditional crop insurance, and it is therefore better suited to small farmers in rainfall-dependent countries such as India," says Ritesh Kumar, head (risk), ICICI Lombard General Insurance.

"Our experience in the implementation of the pilot project has been very encouraging and the company is geared to scale up the operations and ensure fast claims settlement," says Kumar.

To get reliable data, ICICI Lombard has tied up with the Indian Meteorological Department to obtain the latest weather reports and historical charts.