Global reinsurance firm PartnerRe has teamed up with agricultural technology and decision software specialists Farmers Edge in a multi-year partnership that aims to help insurers to close the agricultural insurance gap across all continents.
The four-year agreement brings together precision farming technology and agricultural insurance in a deal that the pair expect to “fundamentally advance the $5 trillion global food and agriculture industry.”
PartnerRe and Farmers Edge will develop new agriculture insurance products together for the main crop growing areas worldwide, with products targeted at solving specific challenges of farmers and meeting their needs.
The pair believes that insurance products with integrated precision-farming capabilities can improve the efficiency and sustainability of farming operations, helping farmers obtain customised insurance products that meet their individual needs and parameters.
The pair also say that insurers will benefit from a more efficient loss adjustment process, by working with PartnerRe and Farmers Edge.
Emmanuel Clarke, President and CEO of PartnerRe, commented on the announcement, “At PartnerRe, we are committed to finding innovative ways to create relevant and impactful reinsurance solutions that support our clients’ business goals. We are delighted to be at the forefront of this exciting and innovative new initiative with Farmers Edge and look forward to partnering with our insurance clients to bring it to market.”
“This first-of-a-kind deal with PartnerRe will have a tremendous impact on farmers as they will gain greater, customized insurance options based on better, more accurate data and simultaneously open up new financing options farmers need to grow their businesses,” explained Wade Barnes, president and CEO of Farmers Edge. “Through this partnership, Farmers Edge is making digital agronomy a reality and empowering farmers all over the globe with data-driven insights so they can maximize crop yields, make better decisions and secure tailor made insurance solutions that make sense for their market.”
Rinat Bektleuov, Head of Agriculture at PartnerRe, also said “In recent years, precision farming has moved from a niche business to the mainstream as a stand-alone agritech industry, with great potential to become the new standard in crop production in the mid to long term.
“By marrying cutting edge technology with insurance market expertise, insurers will have a unique opportunity to get closer to their customers in terms of risk selection, product design, crop growth monitoring and claims adjustment – to create very tailored solutions that meet each farmer’s specific needs.”
Farmers Edge’s software platform provides turnkey solutions, including: Variable Rate Technology, soil sampling and analysis, field-centric weather monitoring, in-field telematics and data transfer, daily satellite imagery, data analytics, predictive modelling, access to integrated farm management platform and real boots on the ground.
Farmers Edge enables and encourages farmers to collect, store and transfer data, enabling them to make better decisions in managing their land and crops.
For PartnerRe, working with a data driven agricultural solution could help it to expand coverage, make better informed underwriting decisions and also put its reinsurance capacity to work for the client base of Farmers Edge.
