The deal will help bring Farmers Edge’s agriculture platform to at least 20 million acres globally
By Diego Flammini
News Reporter
Farms.com
More farmers around the world will have access to Farmers Edge’s agricultural platform thanks to a new agreement between the organization and Partner Re Ltd., a Bermuda-based insurance company.
The companies will work together to develop new agricultural insurance products in the world’s main crop-growing areas, aimed at addressing the specific needs and challenges of farmers.
And the four-year $8-billion agreement aims to bring Farmers Edge’s technology to at least 20 million acres of new farmland by 2022, which is great news for producers, said Ron Osborne, chief strategy officer with Farmers Edge.
The partnership will allow more farms to receive insurance coverage, he said.
“It also shows that our platform has reached certain value that farmers can use it to work with their other stakeholders in new ways,” he told Farms.com.
Farmers can now use the Farmers Edge platform with their insurance agencies to showcase their best management practices and field data. By having access to the platform, farmers can show real-time farm data in the hopes of collecting insurance claims when necessary, Osborne said.
“When a farmer has a claim, they can show their field data to their insurance company and maybe even get paid that same day,” he said.
The deal also gives insurers the opportunity to create tailored plans that meet farmers’ needs.
“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,” Rinat Bektleuov, head of agriculture at PartnerRe, said in a release today.
And developing markets will also benefit from the agreement through infrastructure integration.
Parts of Brazil and eastern Europe haven’t been able to receive insurance coverage because they don’t have the communication infrastructure to properly collect, send and receive data, Osborne said.
The deal between Farmers Edge and PartnerRe will change that, he explained.
“In North America we take cellular infrastructure, soils data and other things like that for granted,” he said. “In other parts of the world that basic infrastructure doesn’t exist. Wherever we go in the world, we can actually deploy that infrastructure.”