Project overview

• Assess how climate change alters the viability of index-based insurance schemes for smallholder farmers by combining climate projections, remote sensing and historical yield data.
• Quantify metrics such as basis risk, expected payout frequency and the correlation between index signals and crop yields under current and future climate scenarios.

Data & Technological environment

• Data sources: CMIP6 climate projections (via Copernicus), historical weather (CHIRPS), NDVI (MODIS) and FAO crop yield statistics.
• Tools & libraries: xarray / netCDF4 for large-scale climate data handling, Prophet or ARIMA for time series modelling, Matplotlib / Seaborn for visualization, Jupyter Notebooks + Git for documentation and reproducibility.

Tasks & methodology

• Preprocess and harmonize large gridded climate datasets (CMIP6) with station/CHIRPS observations and MODIS NDVI; compute agriculturally-relevant indices (e.g., seasonal rainfall totals, dry spells, vegetation anomalies).
• Design candidate index triggers and simulate index payouts historically and under future climate scenarios; evaluate using metrics (basis risk, false payout/no-payout rates, expected indemnity).
• Fit time series models (Prophet/ARIMA) where appropriate to forecast weather/NDVI indicators and to assess temporal stability of index performance.

Deliverables & expected outputs

• Reproducible codebase and Jupyter Notebooks that document data ingestion, preprocessing, modelling and evaluation steps; version controlled via Git.
• A technical report summarizing methods, quantitative evaluation of index viability under different climate scenarios, visualizations, and recommendations for index design for smallholder contexts.

Skills & expectations

• Strong proficiency in Python or R, experience with handling netCDF/xarray is highly desirable; experience with time series modelling and remote sensing (NDVI) is a plus.
• Ability to communicate results through clear visualizations and a written report targeted to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

How to apply

• Apply via the project website: https://www.hydatis.com or by email to: stages@hydatis.fr
• In your application email, reference the project code "Clim-05" and include a brief CV, a short cover note describing relevant experience, and sample code/notebooks if available.