Index insurance represents an alternative and modern form of insurance. With its applicability, it brings the potential for greater uptake. Namely, this kind of crop insurance is both, affordable and accessible to smallholder farmers at scale, finding its place for implementation especially in markets of developing countries. Still, one of the key constraints for greater uptake of index insurance products is the lack of accurate and historical data, making of it the critical factor for index design and determination of payouts. As a solution to this problem, the development of data collected from satellites transforms the whole risk management. Based on all above, BEACON couples leading Earth Observation technology with weather intelligence to deliver consumable, actionable insights for the agri-insurance industry. Beside the fact that satellites are providing an independent data source and excellent spatial coverage, within BEACON the EO technologies are directly used to measure temperature, soil moisture, and evapo-transpiration through the usage of satellite indices (NDVI, Biomass, Chlorophyll, Leaf Area Index) as well.
In addition, beside the fact that toolbox is designed to be a climate crop insurance risk tool, BEACON is also fueled with the blockchain. Namely, on the one side the blockchain component is integrated to secure that each insurance policy is within the smart contracts and on the other side, indexed to local weather parameter measurement. During an extreme weather event, the policies are automatically triggered on the platform, which facilitates timely pay-outs. In this way, BEACON offers much faster and more transparent system, leading to reduced costs and increased trust for both sides, farmers and insurers.
To conclude, BEACON Toolbox represents the agri-insurance supporting tool for 3 main insurance processes: Risk Assessment, Damage Assessment and Contract Monitoring. Moreover, based on the novel technologies integrated within its services, BEACON can support the introduction of index insurance products in the agri-insurance company or to support the index insurance scheme.
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