Masiza, WongaChirima, Johannes GeorgeHamandawana, HamisaiKalumba, Ahmed MukalaziMagagula, Hezekiel Bheki2022-11-082022-11-082022-03-21Masiza, W.; Chirima, J.G.; Hamandawana, H.; Kalumba, A.M.; Magagula, H.B. A Proposed Satellite-Based Crop Insurance System for Smallholder Maize Farming. Remote Sensing 2022, 14, 1512. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14061512.2072-4292 (online)10.3390/rs14061512https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/88188Crop farming in Sub-Saharan Africa is constantly confronted by extreme weather events. Researchers have been striving to develop different tools that can be used to reduce the impacts of adverse weather on agriculture. Index-based crop insurance (IBCI) has emerged to be one of the tools that could potentially hedge farmers against weather-related risks. However, IBCI is still constrained by poor product design and basis risk. This study complements the efforts to improve IBCI design by evaluating the performances of the Tropical Applications of Meteorology using SATellite data and ground-based observations (TAMSAT) and Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS) in estimating rainfall at different spatial scales over the maize-growing season in a smallholder farming area in South Africa. Results show that CHIRPS outperforms TAMSAT and produces better results at 20-day and monthly time steps. The study then uses CHIRPS and a crop water requirements (CWR) model to derive IBCI thresholds and an IBCI payout model. Results of CWR modeling show that this proposed IBCI system can cover the development, mid-season, and late-season stages of maize growth in the study area. The study then uses this information to calculate the weight, trigger, exit, and tick for each of these growth stages. Although this approach is premised on the prevailing conditions in the study area, it can be applied in other areas with different growing conditions to improve IBCI design.en© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).Index insuranceSmallholderRemote sensingCrop farmingSub-Saharan Africa (SSA)Maize farmingIndex-based crop insurance (IBCI)Tropical application of meteorology using satellite data and ground-based observations (TAMSAT)Climate hazards group infrared precipitation with station data (CHIRPS)Crop water requirements (CWR)Article