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GARS and Corteva partner for heat blast-insured canola seed

Global Ag Risk Solutions Corp. (GARS) and Corteva Agriscience have partnered to offer first-of-its-kind insurance protection for Canadian canola farmers.

Through this collaboration, The Heat Advantage insurance will now be included with every purchase of Brevant seeds’ Nexera canola for farmers in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta. This collaboration will provide automatic coverage for canola farmers across Western Canada to protect themselves from what has traditionally been considered acceptable yield losses on canola. Historically, heat blast from hot days and warm nights at the flowering stage of crop development – when the crop is most vulnerable – has resulted in lower yields and lost revenue. In 2020, heat blast affected nine of 10 canola-growing townships, leading to a loss of more than 50 million bushels and approximately $500 million of combined revenue.

“This product represents a next step in how and where we, as leaders, can innovate in the agtech sector,” said Grant Kosior, president and CEO of GARS, and the architects of this new heat blast parametric insurance product. “Agribusiness is evolving at lightspeed; transforming how we farm and moving us, collectively, beyond traditional solutions.”

The Heat Advantage addresses heat blast as the first of many unique products GARS is developing for various crops, risks, and farmers around the world.

Offered through GARS’ Parametrics.ag product, producers are protected from shallow losses caused by excess heat blast. Parametrics.ag is an insurance product designed using data from millions of acres and thousands of yields, modelled against 40 years of temperature and canola-growing data. It uses some of the most technically sophisticated satellite and radar systems to track temperature and risk in real-time.

Beginning in 2022, farmers who plant Nexera canola will be automatically protected with up to $100 per acre in the event of excessive heat during the critical flowering growth development stage.

This incorporated insurance coverage is novel – not only in its progressive offering to growers, but also its data sophistication. “Unlike other insurance, there is no time-consuming loss adjustment process, no trips to the field, and the farmer gets paid months ahead of traditional crop insurance,” Kosior said.

For more information about the Parametrics.ag Canola Heat Cover product, visit: parametrics.ag/. For information about Global Ag Risk’s other products, visit: agrisksolutions.ca/products.

Further information about The Heat Advantage, included exclusively with every purchase of Brevant seeds’ Nexera canola, can be found at www.brevant.ca/nexera.

The Heat Advantage program is insurance underwritten by Northbridge General Insurance Corporation and arranged for by GARS under a policy to be issued to Corteva Agriscience Canada with effect on Jan. 1, 2022. Policy terms, conditions, and exclusions apply. The Heat Advantage program is subject to change upon notice.