The Scale of Agricultural Risk in Africa

Agriculture employs approximately 60% of sub-Saharan Africa's workforce. The majority of these workers are smallholder farmers — cultivating plots of 0.5 to 5 hectares, growing food for their families and modest surpluses for local markets. These farmers are the backbone of food security for hundreds of millions of people.

They are also, in most cases, completely uninsured against the risks that most threaten their livelihoods: drought, flooding, pest infestation, and disease. A single bad season can wipe out a family's income, push them into debt, and force them to sell assets — including the land itself — to survive.

Why Conventional Crop Insurance Hasn't Worked

Traditional crop insurance requires an assessor to physically visit a farm after a loss event, evaluate damage, and approve a claim. This works for large commercial farms. For a smallholder farmer in northern Ghana with a 1-hectare plot of maize, the assessment cost alone often exceeds the value of the claim. Insurers cannot profitably offer this at small scale, and farmers cannot afford premiums that price in the administrative overhead.

Index-Based Insurance: The Breakthrough

GeraSure uses index-based insurance for agricultural products. Instead of assessing each farm individually, payouts are triggered by measurable environmental data: satellite-verified rainfall below a threshold (drought trigger), verified flooding events, or validated pest outbreak declarations by local agricultural authorities.

If a drought event is confirmed in your district by satellite rainfall data, all enrolled farmers in that zone receive a payout — automatically, without needing to submit a claim or wait for an assessor. The payout arrives via mobile money within 72 hours of the trigger event being confirmed.

Coverage Options for Farmers

Drought cover — payout triggered when rainfall falls below the seasonal threshold for your district
Flood cover — triggered by verified inundation events confirmed by satellite imagery
Multi-peril seasonal cover — combines drought, flood, and pest risk into a single seasonal premium
Input cost protection — covers the cost of seeds, fertiliser, and other inputs when a trigger event occurs before harvest

Enrollment and Premiums

Farmers enroll through the GeraSure app or through GeraFarm partner agents. You register your plot location (GPS coordinates), select your crop type, and choose your coverage level. Premiums are calculated based on your location's historical risk profile and current crop value. A typical premium for one season's maize coverage on a 1-hectare plot ranges from $3–15 depending on location and coverage level.

Premiums can be paid at the time of planting — when farmers have income from the previous harvest — or in small weekly instalments via mobile money.

The GeraFarm Connection

GeraSure integrates directly with GeraFarm, Gera's agricultural marketplace. Farmers who sell their produce through GeraFarm can bundle crop insurance as part of their GeraFarm account, with premiums automatically deducted from their GeraFarm earnings at harvest. This eliminates the upfront premium barrier entirely.

The Impact

Research from pilot index-based insurance programs in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Zambia consistently shows that insured farmers invest more in inputs, recover faster from bad seasons, and are significantly less likely to sell land assets after a loss event. Insurance changes risk tolerance — and risk tolerance changes farming behaviour in ways that compound over years.

Learn more about GeraSure agricultural plans or register through GeraFarm.