The feasibility of Picture-Based Insurance (PBI): Smartphone pictures for affordable crop insurance

Smallholder farmers are increasingly exposed to weather extremes but lack access to affordable insurance products for catastrophic crop damage. This paper analyzes the feasibility of Picture-Based Insurance (PBI) as a low-cost tool to improve coverage. PBI verifies insurance claims using smartphone...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ceballos, Francisco, Kramer, Berber, Robles, Miguel
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Elsevier 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/145898
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author Ceballos, Francisco
Kramer, Berber
Robles, Miguel
author_browse Ceballos, Francisco
Kramer, Berber
Robles, Miguel
author_facet Ceballos, Francisco
Kramer, Berber
Robles, Miguel
author_sort Ceballos, Francisco
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Smallholder farmers are increasingly exposed to weather extremes but lack access to affordable insurance products for catastrophic crop damage. This paper analyzes the feasibility of Picture-Based Insurance (PBI) as a low-cost tool to improve coverage. PBI verifies insurance claims using smartphone pictures of insured plots, taken by farmers themselves, to minimize asymmetric information and costs of claims verification, while reducing basis risk compared to index-based insurance. A pilot implementation in the rice-wheat belt of India speaks to PBI being a feasible and valuable innovation to reduce downside basis risk in index insurance: nearly two-thirds of trained farmers took at least four pictures (roughly one per growth stage), which was considered sufficient for loss assessment; severe damage was visible from smartphone pictures in 71 percent of affected sites; and this was a significant improvement over alternative index-based products, which identified severe damage in at most 34 percent of affected sites.
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spelling CGSpace1458982025-02-24T06:45:49Z The feasibility of Picture-Based Insurance (PBI): Smartphone pictures for affordable crop insurance Ceballos, Francisco Kramer, Berber Robles, Miguel innovation insurance technology capacity development crop insurance mobile equipment risk Smallholder farmers are increasingly exposed to weather extremes but lack access to affordable insurance products for catastrophic crop damage. This paper analyzes the feasibility of Picture-Based Insurance (PBI) as a low-cost tool to improve coverage. PBI verifies insurance claims using smartphone pictures of insured plots, taken by farmers themselves, to minimize asymmetric information and costs of claims verification, while reducing basis risk compared to index-based insurance. A pilot implementation in the rice-wheat belt of India speaks to PBI being a feasible and valuable innovation to reduce downside basis risk in index insurance: nearly two-thirds of trained farmers took at least four pictures (roughly one per growth stage), which was considered sufficient for loss assessment; severe damage was visible from smartphone pictures in 71 percent of affected sites; and this was a significant improvement over alternative index-based products, which identified severe damage in at most 34 percent of affected sites. 2019-06-05 2024-06-21T09:05:18Z 2024-06-21T09:05:18Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/145898 en https://hdl.handle.net/10568/145897 https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134751 https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134046 https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134917 https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134941 https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134958 https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148110 https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133534 https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134938 https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.277141 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab5ebb https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13050924 https://doi.org/10.23846/TW13FE11 Open Access Elsevier Ceballos, Francisco; Kramer, Berber; and Robles, Miguel. 2019. The feasibility of Picture-Based Insurance (PBI): Smartphone pictures for affordable crop insurance. Development Engineering 4: 100042. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.deveng.2019.100042
spellingShingle innovation
insurance
technology
capacity development
crop insurance
mobile equipment
risk
Ceballos, Francisco
Kramer, Berber
Robles, Miguel
The feasibility of Picture-Based Insurance (PBI): Smartphone pictures for affordable crop insurance
title The feasibility of Picture-Based Insurance (PBI): Smartphone pictures for affordable crop insurance
title_full The feasibility of Picture-Based Insurance (PBI): Smartphone pictures for affordable crop insurance
title_fullStr The feasibility of Picture-Based Insurance (PBI): Smartphone pictures for affordable crop insurance
title_full_unstemmed The feasibility of Picture-Based Insurance (PBI): Smartphone pictures for affordable crop insurance
title_short The feasibility of Picture-Based Insurance (PBI): Smartphone pictures for affordable crop insurance
title_sort feasibility of picture based insurance pbi smartphone pictures for affordable crop insurance
topic innovation
insurance
technology
capacity development
crop insurance
mobile equipment
risk
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/145898
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