Crop Insurance

RIICE provides a very effective information tool for use by decision-makers in case of natural disasters such as flooding, drought or typhoons. Satellite-based crop production monitoring is an effective tool for crop insurances since the assessment of an insured event can be completed shortly after a disaster takes place. Based on this data, insurers can process claims and make corresponding payments to those farmers who have suffered damage to their crops. Previously, it could take months for loss assessors to travel to the area and put a value on the damage. In this way, RIICE provides the means by which farmers can protect themselves very effectively against potential crop losses and ensures that they receive support quickly when it is needed.

RIICE helps to make the crop pay-outs more transparent. Another advantage of using crop insurance is that governments transfer their farmers’ risks to the insurance sector and are hence unblocking funds which can be put to more productive use rather than holding them as a contingency in government accounts.

Crop insurance will reach farmers through rural banks and cooperatives that are acting as an aggregator for crop insurance services and reach out to farmers on behalf of primary insurance companies that offer a crop insurance cover.