Agritech startup plans yield insurance to shield farmers from climate risks

By Beatriz Marie D. Cruz, Reporter

AGRILEVER, a local agritech startup, plans to launch a yield guarantee insurance product next year to protect farmers from income losses caused by natural disasters.

“This means we aren’t just giving farmers capital; we are guaranteeing profits for those who follow our agronomy advice. We are effectively removing the risk from the equation,” Agrilever Co-founder Yoav Schwalb said in an e-mail to BusinessWorld.

The startup is aiming to expand partnerships with insurance companies to support up to one million farmers through its upcoming new products.

“We are taking a phased, scalable approach. We are targeting an initial proof of concept (POC) with 150,000 farmers,” Mr. Schwalb said.

Agrilever seeks to improve Filipino rice farmers’ access to financing and technology to help raise productivity. Its services include smartphone and mobile data packages, as well as on-the-ground support for farmers.

The company is also looking to onboard four additional partner banks to extend more loans to farmers, Mr. Schwalb said.

At present, its partner institutions include the Land Bank of the Philippines, Guagua Rural Bank, Inc., SNR Bank, and Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) subsidiary BPI Direct BanKo, Inc.

Latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that farmers posted a poverty incidence rate of 27% in 2023, making them among the country’s poorest sectors.

Farmers continue to face challenges such as rising input costs, limited access to capital, competition from imports, and land disputes.

Mr. Schwalb also said unstable farmgate prices remain a major issue due to extreme weather conditions and unfair trading practices.

“To address this, we are currently developing Asia’s first downside protection mechanism for farmgate prices — similar to the safety nets farmers enjoy in the United States,” he said.

Agrilever said about 98% of the country’s rice farmers remain unbanked.

Mr. Schwalb noted that farmers’ non-performing loan ratio remains close to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ latest reported industry average of 3.31% as of September.

“This validates our credit scoring model — farmers want to pay, and when given the right tools, they do,” he said.

Earlier this year, Agrilever launched a digital application that provides data-driven tools for farmers, including crop management, loan monitoring, and digital credit scoring.

The company recently partnered with US-based weather intelligence firm Tomorrow.io to integrate artificial intelligence-powered weather insights into its platform.

Agrilever is also looking to integrate a smart contract marketplace into its app to ensure transactions between farmers and buyers are properly executed, Mr. Schwalb said.

“When you combine guaranteed yields with transparent contracts, you create an environment where banks are eager to lend and farmers are confident to borrow,” he noted.

The startup is targeting two million downloads of its digital app next year.

For 2026, Agrilever plans to partner with more insurance technology firms and logistics providers to further support its financing initiatives and smart contract offerings, Mr. Schwalb said.