New developments in the upgrading of agricultural insurance products are worth looking forward to
The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) recently held a press conference and announced that agricultural insurance products have achieved a comprehensive upgrade. Major disasters such as droughts and earthquakes have been included in the scope of insurance for the first time. This comprehensive upgrade of agricultural insurance products involves 34 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government), 15 types of crops and 6 types of livestock and aquaculture varieties, totaling 738 agricultural insurance products and 22 insurance companies, further meeting the needs of agricultural risk management under the new situation.
For a long time, farming has meant depending on the weather for one's livelihood. With the continuous development of science and technology, greenhouse vegetables and greenhouse agriculture have entered people's lives, allowing farmers to escape the mercy of nature to a certain extent. However, to a larger extent and on a broader scale, the situation of depending on the weather will still exist for a long time. Once a natural disaster strikes, if farmers want to minimize their losses, they still cannot do without agricultural insurance.
In fact, China has had a history of carrying out agricultural insurance business for some time, and the development of agricultural insurance has also achieved certain results. Agricultural insurance has played a positive role in stabilizing agricultural production and promoting farmers' income growth. From 2007 to 2012, agricultural insurance paid a cumulative total of 55 billion yuan in claims. At the same time, fiscal support for agricultural insurance has continued to strengthen. After the central government finance implemented subsidies for agricultural insurance in 2007, it expanded from 6 provinces to the whole country, and the varieties increased from 6 to 15. However, we must still see that relative to the vast farmland, paddy fields, other economic fields, and the deeper needs of farmers, our agricultural insurance still has a great deal of room for development. This time, the CIRC's upgrade of agricultural insurance products can, to a large extent, safeguard farmers' interests and compensate for losses caused by natural disasters.
Food is the first necessity of the people, and agriculture is the lifeblood of the nation. No matter what time it is, the nation cannot neglect the safety and development of agriculture. To encourage farmers to develop agricultural production, eliminating their worries is an important aspect. Only by increasing the strength of agricultural insurance can more farmers, as well as large grain-growing households and large livestock and aquaculture households, have more confidence to increase production and make greater contributions to the nation and society.