About
Kerala Crop Fund
Kerala Crop Fund is a student-led initiative that provides free crop insurance and low interest micro-loans to small scale rice farmers in Kerala, India. Our mission is to protect farmers from the financial hardship caused by unpredictable weather and failed harvests. Using real data collected from local farms, we have designed a transparent, community-based model that ensures timely support when farmers need it most. We believe in practical solutions that build stability and restore confidence in farming. Every dollar raised is used to reduce risk, support livelihoods, and create long term agricultural resilience in some of the most vulnerable communities.
$17,014
Raised in Donations
114,800
Pounds of Rice Insured
10
Farms Fully Insured
The Background
In Thrissur, rice is a cultural cornerstone and a livelihood for hundreds of smallholder farmers. These farmers, often cultivating less than two acres of land, form the backbone of local food systems and rural economies. Despite their resilience, they face a dangerous financial reality. Their earnings are modest, their margins are tight, and they often lack access to formal safety nets or reliable credit.
Necessary resources such as seed, fertilizer, labor, and equipment require upfront investment. A typical farm operates on the assumption that these costs will be recovered at harvest. While most years deliver predictable outcomes, this system offers no room for error.
The Problem
Most years, smallholder rice farmers in Thrissur successfully achieve full or near-full production of their expected yields. This stability masks a deeper vulnerability: the entire farming operation is one major disaster away from collapse. When problems do arise, the losses are not marginal; they are catastrophic.
In 2015, blast disease wiped out puncha crop fields in Kuttanad, erasing months of effort in a matter of days. In 2018, devastating floods across Kerala destroyed over 56,000 hectares of paddy fields, leaving many small farms completely underwater and without recourse. In 2020, brown planthopper infestations swept through Palakkad, ravaging crops and leaving farmers helpless as yields dropped by over 70% in affected areas. These events are rare, but their impact is total.
When such shocks hit, small farmers have no institutional cushion. The only options left are deeply personal and painful: borrowing from relatives, selling already minimal possessions, reducing food and health spending, or pulling children from school to save on expenses. These short-term survival strategies have long-term consequences that deepening intergenerational poverty and decreasing the likelihood of recovery.
The risk is not frequent, but it is decisive. And it is precisely this kind of risk that conventional credit and insurance markets fail to account for. The need is for a model that activates only when disaster strikes, while simultaneously improving farm operations to prevent vulnerability to disaster.