 "How banks are using satellite images to determine farmers' income & repayment capacity")
Satellite imagery is becoming a powerful tool in banking, especially for assessing farmers’ income and repayment capacity.
According to a report by the Economic Times, the Uttar Pradesh government, in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation, is integrating state land records with companies like Bengaluru-based SatSure to enable digital farm lending for the state’s eight crore farmers.
This initiative is changing how banks evaluate rural creditworthiness, promising faster, more data-driven decision-making.
How satellite imagery powers lending decisions
SatSure provides satellite-based risk scores and ratings at both farm and village levels. By analysing patterns in satellite images with AI, the company can identify crops, monitor their health, and assess productivity over time.
As per the ET report, the data with the company, combined with climatic data on rainfall, temperature, and humidity, these insights allow banks to gauge a farmer’s income potential and repayment capacity with greater precision.
Banks integrate SatSure’s APIs into their systems, enabling them to fetch risk reports for specific land parcels within minutes, streamlining loan approval processes. This eliminates delays and offers farmers better access to credit. SatSure collaborates with the Reserve Bank of India Innovation Hub, credit rating agencies like TransUnion CIBIL, and private lenders such as ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank.
Expanding the use of satellite data in agriculture
Other companies, like Dhruva Space and Pixxel, are enhancing the role of satellite data in agriculture. Dhruva’s AstraView service offers high-resolution, multi-dimensional geospatial insights that track crop health, soil conditions, and environmental changes.
By simplifying access to both historical and real-time satellite data, AstraView helps optimise farming operations and resource use, as per the ET report.
Meanwhile, Pixxel’s hyperspectral satellites, set to launch next year, aim to bridge gaps in financial inclusion. These satellites will provide more frequent and detailed data, enabling banks to make hyper-localised lending decisions and insurers to design products tailored to rural realities. Pixxel CEO Awais Ahmed highlights the potential for precision-targeted products that reflect ground-level realities, benefiting both agribusinesses and financial institutions.
A new era of data-driven banking and insurance
The geospatial data ecosystem—spanning data collection, analytics, and application—is revolutionising sectors like banking and insurance. Banks now move beyond generic credit evaluations to risk assessments rooted in hyper-localised insights. Similarly, insurers can better evaluate risks linked to natural disasters or property, improving claims processing and policy design.
This shift marks a broader trend where industries traditionally unconnected to space, like banking, are leveraging satellite data to transform operations. With tools like SatSure, AstraView, and Pixxel’s Fireflies satellites, data-driven decision-making is reshaping rural financial inclusion, offering targeted support to farmers and vulnerable communities.
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