BharatRohan Launches 'Pravir Shield’ to Provide Parametric Crop Cover to Farmers

Agritech startup- BharatRohan launched 'Pravir Shield,’ an initiative to provide farmers with parametric crop insurance, in collaboration with ICICI Lombard and rural insuretech broker Gramcover. The pilot phase of the insurance will cover paddy farmers in Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki who use BharatRohan's drone-based crop monitoring service 'CropAssure,' according to a statement from the start-up. 

This will assist BharatRohan's subscriber farmers in reducing losses caused by changing weather patterns. By 2024, the Agritech firm hopes to have reached two lakh farmers.

"We chose parametric insurance because it provides faster pay-outs based on pre-defined parameters of adverse weather incidence, such as deficit and excess rainfall, temperature, and relative humidity, which results in farmer losses." "The parameters are set based on the type of crop grown by the farmers as well as the historical weather pattern in the region," said Panimalar T, Associate (Growth & Strategy) at BharatRohan, who is leading this initiative.

Through UAV/drone-based hyper-spectral imaging technology, BharatRohan empowers its subscriber farmers by providing actionable insights. Farmers are regularly notified of impending crop threats such as pest attacks, disease outbreaks, and nutrient deficiencies, even before they are visible to the naked eye. This aids in the replacement of traditional guesswork with real-time scientific advice.

The start-up, which operates on 30,000 acres with over 6,000 farmers in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, also enables its farmers to produce residue-free commodities and sells them to large institutional buyers.

According to Amandeep Panwar, Co-founder and CEO of BharatRohan, "Indian agriculture is dependent on the monsoon, and climate change is the most significant challenge that Indian farmers have faced in recent times." It has an impact on their livelihood because their income is uncertain as a result of climate change and crop yield volatility. Unlike traditional yield-based insurance, parametric insurance products do not require yield estimation prior to claim settlement. "Claims are settled based on the deviation of weather parameters from pre-defined values, and the correlation between yield and weather is estimated during product design," says Sayoni Sengupta of Gramcover.

"By diagnosing their fields with drone-based hyperspectral imagery, we work with small and marginal farmers to increase crop productivity and income." Pravir Shield is a step toward our goal of assuring farmers that their crop yield and income are protected. For each crop season, we have chosen to provide parametric crop insurance to our farmers who subscribe to BharatRohan CropAssure drone-based crop advisory. This will be an important tool in assisting them to become climate resilient," says Rishabh Choudhary, Co-founder and CTO of BharatRohan.

BharatRohan wants its partner farmers to be self-sufficient and not rely on private lenders for financial assistance to mitigate crop damage caused by natural disasters or inclement weather. The startup also encourages farmers to adopt modern and sustainable agriculture practices that increase their income while lowering their carbon footprint.