Photo-based crop insurance could debut in Kenya in 2019 (SciDev)

The Science Development Network reported on developments in crop insurance, which could debut as soon as 2019 in Kenya. Picture-based crop insurance has made significant strides, as a study found that it may avoid pitfalls of other insurance schemes. Associate research fellow Francisco Ceballos discussed the ability of picture-based insurance to better insulate farmers in low and middle-income countries against regular crop catastrophes, while also providing security to invest and experiment, using cellphone applications. “We are trying to provide one app instead of the farmer having to deal with many different apps from different sources,” Ceballos said.