Experts interpret why agricultural insurance can't help Henan's stricken corn?
In mid-to-late July, many parts of Henan suffered continuous heavy rainfall, tens of millions of acres of farmland were affected, and more than 5 million acres of farmland were not harvested.
As of August 10, 11,500 cases of agricultural insurance were reported due to heavy rain disasters, with an estimated loss of 492 million yuan, 8,618 cases have been settled, and 313 million yuan has been paid to 77,900 farmers.
Regrettably, when the reporter visited the non-harvest area, he found that corn, the most severely affected food crop, was not covered by the local agricultural insurance.
Why does agricultural insurance bypass Henan corn?
What are the progress and shortcomings of my country's agricultural insurance?
With these questions in mind, a reporter from the Beijing News interviewed Zhang Qiao, director of the Agricultural Risk Management Research Center of the Information Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and Zhong Yu, director of the Industrial Economic Research Office of the Institute of Agricultural Economic Development, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Policy insurance accounts for 99% of all agricultural insurance
Beijing News: Does agricultural insurance cover a wide range in China?
Is this market big?
Zhong Yu: In 2007, my country began to implement the agricultural insurance premium subsidy policy, and continued to promote agricultural insurance to "expand the coverage, raise the standard, and increase the product."
Since the central government implemented the agricultural insurance premium subsidy policy, the types of subsidies have been gradually expanded, from 5 varieties in 2007 to 16 bulk agricultural products and more than 60 local advantageous characteristic agricultural products.
The scale of my country's premium subsidies has increased by more than 27 times in more than ten years from 2007 to 2020.
On July 6, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission jointly issued a notice to officially expand the scope of full cost insurance and income insurance for the three major food crops of rice, corn, and wheat, which have been piloted for nearly three years.
Zhang Qiao: Agricultural insurance is divided into policy insurance and commercial insurance. Since 2007, my country has implemented the agricultural insurance premium subsidy policy, which is what we often call policy insurance.
At present, in agricultural insurance, policy-based agricultural insurance accounts for 99%, while agricultural commercial insurance accounts for only 1%.
Although my country's agricultural insurance started late, it has developed rapidly. In 2020, my country's agricultural insurance premium income will reach 81.5 billion yuan, surpassing the United States to become the world's largest country in agricultural insurance premium income.
Among them, the finances at all levels borne a total of 60.3 billion yuan in insurance premium subsidies, providing farmers with 4.13 trillion yuan in agricultural risk protection, and the effect of the use of central fiscal subsidies was 145 times larger.
Why did corn insurance subsidies not resume after cancellation
Beijing News: Henan is a major agricultural province and a major corn planting province, but why in this disaster, we found that corn was not covered by the agricultural insurance coverage during our visit?
Zhang Qiao: I understand that after the disaster, the local government departments have introduced some measures in time.
The Henan Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau also instructed insurance companies to carry out disaster investigation, emergency rescue and disaster relief, and do a good job in post-disaster production remediation.
However, the function of agricultural insurance is limited. Let’s do the calculations. A reduction of more than 10% due to a disaster is called a disaster, a reduction of more than 30% due to a disaster is a disaster, and a reduction of more than 80% due to a disaster is an absolute harvest. The crop output value per mu is 800 yuan. It is estimated that the economic loss of crops caused by this flood in Henan reached about 6 billion yuan.
Although the current amount of agricultural insurance for agricultural insurance in Henan’s flood disaster has reached 492 million yuan, it still accounts for a small percentage compared with the economic losses of crops.
One of the reasons is that in 2017, in response to the central government’s policy to reduce the corn planting area in the "Sickle Bend" area, Henan Province cancelled government premium subsidies for corn insurance, which has not been restored for several years, but corn is the main fall crop in Henan. Varieties, the sown area accounted for more than 75% in recent years.
In this flood disaster, corn was not covered by the local agricultural insurance.
In fact, the corn planting area in Henan has been reduced in the past two years. In order to take advantage of the loss compensation capability of agricultural insurance, Henan Province still needs to incorporate corn and other bulk agricultural products into the agricultural insurance system as soon as possible to increase its insurance coverage.
Of course, not only Henan, but all parts of the country should increase their efforts in "increasing products, expanding coverage, and raising standards" for agricultural insurance.
Beijing News: Are there any successful cases of agricultural insurance that can be used for reference?
Zhong Yu: Yes.
I was impressed by Zhangqiu, Shandong. In the process of agricultural insurance implementation, a relatively mature model of "farmers + insurance companies + government supervision + market management" was formed.
When farmers need to settle claims, the agricultural technology station under the local agricultural and rural departments will assess and confirm the losses of the farmers for the reference of the insurance company.
Government professionals came forward, and of course farmers and insurance companies recognized the results.
In addition to intervention in supervision, market-oriented operations and the survival of the fittest model are also a constraint for insurance companies, effectively protecting the interests of insured farmers.
Draw a risk map to promote differentiated pricing
Beijing News: What problems still exist in my country's agricultural insurance?
Zhong Yu: Before doing research in various places, the most intuitive feeling is that the current agricultural insurance payment standards are relatively low and the payment procedures are more complicated.
Many farmer households reported that when it is really necessary to start the insurance claims process, the farmer households are actually at a disadvantage.
In the process of claim settlement, there was a phenomenon of "bargaining" in the actual compensation. If you want more compensation, you have to wait patiently. If you want to get the money at that time, you will face a big discount.
More insurance companies promote direct materialized cost insurance. For farmers, they can only get back money for seeds, pesticides, and fertilizers.
Zhang Qiao: At present, there are still partial payments and negotiated payments, and even subsidies are made. Farmers are paid more or less every year. However, the compensation is not enough in the year when the disaster is encountered. This violates the principle of agricultural insurance and affects The effect of agricultural insurance.
We have previously conducted a questionnaire survey of more than 10,000 farmers, and the results show that after the farmers suffered losses, the actual insurance compensation only accounted for 30% to 40% of the losses, and the farmers did not have a strong sense of gain.
Due to unscientific rate pricing, lack of standardized and transparent compensation standards, etc., the phenomenon of negotiated compensation and average compensation has emerged, which makes my country's agricultural insurance compensation generally present the characteristics of "high benefit rate and low compensation amount".
Beijing News: How can the government level make agricultural insurance better play its protection role?
Zhang Qiao: At present, the governments of developed countries provide agricultural insurance in five forms: premium subsidies, operating management fee subsidies, reinsurance subsidies, training and education subsidies, and product development subsidies. However, the Chinese government only uses a single method of premium subsidies. The policy space for insurance subsidies provides more flexible insurance premium subsidies.
In addition, my country’s agricultural insurance premium subsidies do not highlight the policy orientation of rural revitalization and green agriculture strategies. We should actively benchmark the strategic needs of agricultural green development, “carbon neutrality and carbon peaking”, and integrated development of agricultural primary, secondary and tertiary industries. The concept of agricultural insurance development.
In terms of government public services, so far, my country’s government-organized comprehensive and systematic agricultural production risk assessment and rate zoning work has not yet been carried out. Authoritative agricultural production risk maps cannot be provided, and a differentiated pricing mechanism based on regional risks has not been implemented. Agricultural insurance-related data and information are scattered in different departments, and there is neither a sharing platform nor a sharing mechanism. It is necessary to organize and promote as soon as possible to lay a solid foundation for the development of agricultural insurance.
Beijing News reporter Cao Jingrui