Award-winning agri-lender solution for climate-smart lending
Agri-lender solution
F3 Life enables the provision of “climate or environmentally-smart credit” by financial institutions or non-traditional lenders to their farming clients. We make farm level visual data relevant to climate risk available to agri-investors to inform ongoing credit analysis and decisions. F3 Life systems integrate with lenders’ core banking systems to make sure land-related climate risk factors can be easily incorporated into existing credit processes.
Climate-smart credit incorporates climate-smart agricultural and land-management practices into loan terms. When a client signs a loan agreement, they also sign a land management agreement which requires the client to manage their land in a way which is designed to protect them and their farm from climate-change related events. This approach is designed to enhance credit-provider profitability by reducing credit default risk and increasing client debt service coverage ratio. Additionally, it ensures farmers are building resilience to weather events associated with climate change.
F3 Life Agri-Lender Tools
We help companies and financial institutions which lend to smallholders with design and implementation of climate-smart credit products, monitoring implementation of climate-smart farming and land-management practices, and using climate-smart credit scores when making credit decisions. We do this by providing the following:
Investment Design Tools
Climate-smart credit product designs
We provide off-the-peg climate-smart credit product designs which specify the land-management measures that your clients should implement in order to increase their climate resilience and reduce their credit default risk. We can also provide conventional credit product terms or you can integrate climate-smart land management requirements with your existing agricultural credit products.
Financial Models
To build the case for our lending approach, we provide: (1) lender financial projections, (2) farmer financial projections, and (3) environmental cost benefit analysis, associated with use of our tools. These models based on best available science show how our system will (1) benefit the lender by reducing client credit default risk and increase client debt service coverage ratios, (2) improve farmer productivity and mitigate weather-related losses, and (3) help achieve environmental objetives.
Environmental Project Milestones
The F3 Life system helps farmers implement a step-by-step process for land-managment improvement. We therefore set these farm management milestones in a specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound (SMART) fashion to facilitate reporting against credible achivements. Environmental project milestones can be integrated these with lending disbursement milestones set by your lending protocols and guidelines.
Deal Documentation Tools
Term Sheets for Investors
Frequently agri-lenders will use our tools in order to unlock climate and environmental finance for the purpose of their lending portfolios. Following use of our design tools, we provide term sheets which identify the financial and environmental terms of loans, using establised environmental metrics, informing more detailed later deal agreements
Climate-Smart Loan Agreement Provisions
Following the use of our investment design tools, we provide climate-smart loan terms for both the agreement between agri-lender and its debt funder (if needed) and for agreements between the agri-lender and the farmer credit client. These can be simply included into your standard loan agreements as climate-smart inserts
Contractor Terms of Reference
Climate-smart lending deals can require (1) external advice on the inclusion of sustainable land-management agreements in loan terms and, (2) provision of advice to farmers on implementing these measures. We provide the terms of reference or job descriptions for these service providers as part of the package
Impact Reporting Tools
Land Mapping Tools
We provide simple and cost-effective tools for the mapping of land subject to improved land-management requirements. Mapping or locating this land is necessary for the monitoring and reporting of impact and our system achieves this in a user-friendly way with security designed for fiinancial instittuions
Climate-Smart Credit Rating System
The 6th “C” of credit is “Climate”. We help lenders factor climate into their credit scoring with climate-smart ratings based on farmers’ adoption of climate-smart and risk mitigating farming practies thereby incorporating climate into your standard business procedures and protocols
Impact Verification & Climate and Environmental Reporting Tools
Businesses must evidence their impact in a verifable and auditable way. Our verification and monitoring systems creates an evidence trail of your environmental impact for use by your investors and other important stakeholders
Training Systems
Training Materials
Underpinning the use of all these tools, we provide an online training system for back and front office staff to develop and implement climate-smart lending projects.
How the system works
Step 1
The agri-lender includes requirements for sustainable farming measures into its loan agreement with its farming clients.
Step 2
As the farmer repays their loan, the farmer adopts required sustainable farming practices.
Step 3
Our monitoring and remote-sensing system is used to verify that a farmer complies with the terms of their loan for sustainable farming practices.
Step 4
Lenders use this information about farmer sustainability to inform further credit decisions and to report to their stakeholders on their climate and environmental impact.
An Example of a Climate Smart Credit Product
This credit product incentivises improved soil conservation to protect soils from heavy episodic rainfall projected to increase with climate change in certain areas of Kenya. Farmers who employ this system protect their soils, improve their yield and reduce their likelihood of credit default. In this specific instance, our partner lender was able to reduce interest rates to reflect reduced client risk.
Why use F3 Life Systems?
Reduced exposure to climate-change related default risk
Improved debt service coverage ratios
Credit users who are more resilient to climate change
New avenues to raise investment
Pricing
Investment Design Tools
Level 1- Land-management requirements
- Climate-smart credit designs
- Lender financial analysis
- Outgrower financial analysis
- Farmer cost-benefit analysis
- Environmental cost-benefit analysis
- Environmental milestones
Deal Documentation Tools
Level 2- Term sheets for investors
- Climate-smart provisions for investment agreement agreements
- Climate-smart provisions for loan and produce supply agreements
- Terms of reference for contractors
Mapping & Reporting Tools
Level 3- PAYG = Pay-as-you-grow, designed to cost-effectivecly fit your project size
- Land mapping tools
- Environmental activity verification tools
- Impact monitoring tools
- Climate risk and impact reporting tools