CIRC requires proper agricultural meteorological disaster claims handling and disaster prevention and loss reduction work

In order to give full play to the functions of agricultural insurance in safeguarding people's livelihoods, preventing and reducing disasters, and providing social services, and to ensure the stability of production and living of disaster-affected farming households and the restoration of their post-disaster production capacity, the CIRC recently issued a notice requiring property insurance companies to do a good job in agricultural meteorological disaster claims handling and disaster prevention and loss reduction work.

The notice stated that since the beginning of summer in 2015, the national average precipitation has been lower than the same period in normal years, the average temperature has been higher than normal, and extreme weather and climate events have shown a trend of frequent occurrence. In August, most provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across the country suffered from rainstorm and flood disasters and severe convective weather such as thunderstorms, gales and hail, and meteorological drought continued to develop in some areas, causing a relatively large impact on agricultural production and farmers' lives.

In this regard, the notice required doing a good job in agricultural meteorological disaster claims handling and disaster prevention and loss reduction work from three aspects:

First, increase work efforts and further expand the coverage of agricultural insurance. All companies should increase investment in manpower and material resources and accelerate the progress of underwriting. Focusing on improving the ability to serve agricultural modernization, facilitating the transfer of land contractual management rights, and promoting the transformation of agricultural production methods, they should accelerate the pilot implementation of innovative products such as agricultural product price insurance, weather index insurance, yield insurance and income insurance, as well as supplementary protection products, to meet the diversified insurance needs of new types of agricultural production and operation entities. They should actively promote the development of seed production insurance, fishery insurance, agricultural machinery insurance, rural housing insurance, farmers' accidental injury insurance, agricultural product export credit insurance and agricultural product quality assurance insurance, and expand new areas of insurance services for “agriculture, rural areas and farmers.” They should thoroughly implement national regional development policies, actively carry out pilot insurance for local specialty and advantageous agricultural products, and better serve local rural social and economic development. They should actively explore new models and new paths for cooperation between agricultural insurance and agriculture-related credit, assist in alleviating the rural problems of “difficult and expensive loans,” and improve the rural financial service system. They should, around the national poverty alleviation and development deployment, strengthen insurance services for concentrated contiguous impoverished mountainous areas, old revolutionary base areas, ethnic minority areas and major agricultural production counties, and ensure the implementation of national policies to strengthen agriculture, benefit farmers and enrich farmers.

Second, raise awareness and optimize processes to effectively provide insurance claims services. Claims work involves the vital interests of the vast number of farming households, the implementation of national support policies and the image of the insurance industry. All companies should attach great importance to it, effectively strengthen the organization and leadership of claims work, and ensure that all work is carried out effectively. First, adhere to the principle of honoring contracts and keeping promises, and pay all claims that should be paid according to the provisions of insurance contracts; second, give priority to handling claims reports for major disasters and establish fast claims channels; third, optimize claims processes, simplify claims procedures and improve claims efficiency; fourth, grant special authorization to branches in severely affected areas, giving priority to fast and broad compensation, so that affected farmers and agricultural production and operation entities can resume production and living as soon as possible; fifth, for cases where the disaster loss amount is high, the social impact is large and the insurance liability is clear, but for objective reasons the final compensation amount cannot be determined for the time being, part of the compensation should be paid in advance based on the losses that can be determined; sixth, properly handle claims disputes to avoid the occurrence of rural mass incidents.

Third, increase investment in manpower and material resources and assist in disaster prevention and loss reduction work. Agricultural insurance is an important part of the agricultural disaster prevention and relief system and the emergency management system. All companies should attach great importance to disaster prevention and loss reduction work, increase investment in manpower and material resources for disaster prevention, loss prevention and epidemic prevention, strengthen cooperation with departments such as meteorology, agriculture, water resources and land resources, strengthen information sharing and coordinated response, and assist government departments in actively carrying out disaster prevention and reduction work. They should actively explore methods such as artificial weather intervention, unmanned aerial vehicle aerial photography and pest and disease control, make full use of new technologies and new methods, and effectively give play to the functions and role of insurance. They should actively cooperate with local governments and relevant departments in emergency rescue and disaster relief work for large-scale agricultural meteorological disasters, and use scientific and technological achievements such as modern agricultural technology, information technology and remote sensing surveying and mapping technology to improve disaster response capacity. They should proactively report to Party committees and governments at all levels on the insurance industry's participation in disaster prevention and loss reduction and post-disaster relief work, enhance local Party and government understanding of the functions and role of agricultural insurance, and improve the ability to use insurance, a market-based means, to respond to disasters.

The notice stated that all companies should promptly summarize and publicize the good experiences, good practices and typical examples emerging in responding to agricultural meteorological disasters, and report them to the CIRC.