The insurance sector is well aware of the rising threats of climate change. In particular, crop insurance - that is, the securing of revenues for a farmer even if crops fail - is likely to undergo substantial shifts in design, premiums and covered risks. To cope with these changes, insurance companies seek collaboration with research institutes to better understand looming risks.
The working group "Adaptation in Agricultural Systems", led by Dr. Christoph Gornott, has now acquired a new project funded by the Munich Re, the world's largest re-insurer. The project is operated jointly with the GAF AG in Munich, a leading company in Remote Sensing applications. The common aim of the project is to improve crop yield estimations for wheat and rice to calculate production risks for farmers in India. A scaling up of the approach from the Indian case study is also foreseen, using scalable crop models. The envisaged results could advance research in unravelling crop perils and support food security by a better understanding of crop insurances and their potential benefits.
