Etherisc protects another 7,000 Kenyan farmers as part of the Lemonade Crypto Climate Coalition

Excited farmers celebrate first payouts, which took place days after the season ended.

Etherisc continues to scale. As part of the Lemonade Crypto Climate Coalition, led by the Lemonade Foundation, we are delighted to have provided further 7,000 Kenyan farmers with parametric crop protection powered by Chainlink on the Avalanche blockchain during the recent growing season.

“There are more than 7.5 million smallholder farmers in Kenya, many of whom are vulnerable to the devastating effects of climate change. Working closely with our many partners, we see significant opportunities for our blockchain based parametric insurance platform in protecting farmers’ livelihoods” Christoph Mussenbrock, CEO and co-founder of Etherisc

The use of Etherisc’s smart contracts platform enabled the Lemonade Crypto Climate Coalition to initiate fast payouts without the need for filing claims, or for human adjusters, lowering costs, and avoiding the often months-long timeline associated with the process.

Christoph Mussenbrock, CEO and co-founder of Etherisc in Kenya, March 2023

“Working alongside our partners and seeing the very real impact decentralized technologies can have on smallholder farmers in Kenya is incredibly encouraging,” said Shai Wininger, Director at the Lemonade Foundation.

So how did it work?

Since the start of the planting season in September, nearly 7,000 farmers signed up to protect their crops during the most recent short rains season from October 2022 to January 2023. Farmers signed up using feature phones, and pay less than $1 to cover their entire crop against drought and flood.

At the end of the season cash transfers were automatically triggered based on area yield data and sent directly to farmers. Data from local yield samples (taken by our local partner, Pula) were triangulated with meteorological data and fed into our smart contract using industry-standard Chainlink oracles. Payout funds were automatically deposited into farmers’ m-pesa accounts (the most popular payment system in Kenya) without them needing to file a claim.

Our smart contract solution significantly streamlined and simplified the claims process. This enabled payments to farmers within weeks at the end of the season, a process that traditionally can take several months and, at times, up to two years. At the same time, our parametric solution gave farmers full transparency on the level of payout they would receive based on verified and triangulated yield data.

Proud Kenyan farmer having received her parametric payout

Building up momentum

The next phase of the LCCC project will focus on the upcoming growing season in Kenya in April, with plans to scale the program throughout the region and expand to support tens of thousands more subsistence farmers facing real climate risks to their livelihoods.

“This project is still just on the runway, and thousands of farmers might just be the beginning of a massive movement.” John Wu, President of Ava Labs.

“We’re excited to expand beyond this initial stage and continue scaling to give even more farmers access to critical financial protection when they need it most.” Shai Wininger, Director at the Lemonade Foundation.

Etherisc also continues to work with Acre Africa, where we have already insured 25,000 farmers.

About the Lemonade Crypto Climate Coalition

The Lemonade Crypto Climate Coalition launched in March 2022 to provide subsistence farmers with the ability to easily and effectively sign up for at-cost parametric crop insurance. The Lemonade Crypto Climate Coalition was formed by the Lemonade Foundation alongside founding members including Avalanche, Chainlink, DAOstack, Etherisc, Hannover Re, and Pula.

About Etherisc

Etherisc revolutionizes insurance. By harnessing the power of blockchain technology, Etherisc innovates to make insurance cheaper, faster, more transparent and accessible while unlocking new investment opportunities. On Etherisc’s Generic Insurance Framework (GIF), external parties can build decentralized insurance projects. Its open-source common infrastructure, product templates, and insurance license-as-a-service enable the seamless and efficient creation of fully automated insurance products with increased transparency and fairness for all parties. Join our discord and telegram communities, follow us on Twitter, reach out at contact@etherisc.com or visit https://etherisc.com/

About Chainlink

Chainlink is the industry-standard Web3 services platform that has enabled trillions of dollars in transaction volume across DeFi, insurance, gaming, NFTs, and other major industries. As the leading decentralized oracle network, Chainlink enables developers to build feature-rich Web3 applications with seamless access to real-world data and off-chain computation across any blockchain and provides global enterprises with a universal gateway to all blockchains.

Learn more about Chainlink by visiting chain.link or reading the developer documentation at docs.chain.link. To discuss an integration, reach out to an expert.