Insurance Backed Loans for Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) Adoption is a USD 90M credit facility that uses satellite and smartphone data to enable insured lending for climate-smart agriculture adoption across Indian smallholder farms. It is designed for India’s smallholder farmers, particularly women and tenant cultivators who face barriers to accessing credit and insurance. It bundles loans for CSA inputs with picture-based crop insurance, in which farmers submit photos to verify crop conditions, and AI-enabled credit scoring. This approach encourages CSA adoption while supporting resilience, emissions reduction, and financial inclusion.

India’s smallholder farmers, especially women, tenant cultivators, and those without land titles, face chronic barriers to accessing credit. Limited collateral, information gaps, and poorly aligned index insurance products restrict their ability to adopt climate-smart practices. These constraints suppress the potential for climate adaptation and mitigation.

Developed by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Dvara E-Registry, this solution replaces traditional land-title requirements with satellite and smartphone imagery to verify creditworthiness and cultivation practices, as well as to settle insurance claims based on visible damage from natural causes. This approach is expected to de-risk both lenders and farmers and increase investment in climate-smart agriculture (CSA), delivering reduced emissions, greater climate resilience, and economic inclusion.

According to the proponents, the vehicle aims to expand access to credit for 150,000 farmers, enabling the adoption of climate-smart technologies, strengthening climate resilience, and supporting India’s broader transition to low-carbon agriculture.