China's agricultural insurance covers more than 1.1 billion mu of crops

At the "Agricultural Insurance Seminar" held on September 10, the "China Agricultural Insurance Market Demand Survey Report" was officially released. The report shows that from 2007 to 2013, the area of major crops covered by China's agricultural insurance increased from 230 million mu to 1.106 billion mu, providing cumulative risk protection of 4.07 trillion yuan and paying 75.9 billion yuan in claims to 120 million farming households. China's agricultural insurance business scale has leapt to second in the world, second only to the United States, which has a history of agricultural insurance development spanning more than a century.

At present, the regions where China's agricultural insurance operates have covered all provinces, and the crop varieties underwritten have reached more than 90, basically covering all fields of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fisheries. In 2013, China's agricultural insurance achieved the "four breakthroughs": the underwritten area of major crops broke through 1 billion mu, reaching 1.106 billion mu; the insurance amount broke through 1 trillion yuan, reaching 1.39 trillion yuan; the number of insured farming households broke through 200 million household-times, reaching 214 million household-times; and insurance claims broke through 20 billion yuan, reaching 20.86 billion yuan. The insurance coverage rates of the three major staple grain crops of rice, corn and wheat reached 64.9%, 67.3% and 61.8% respectively.

⟦NL> Chen Wenhui, Vice Chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, believes that the development of China's agricultural insurance has reached a new level, and breakthroughs are needed in six major aspects: macro strategy, operating mechanisms, industrial innovation, risk prevention, the support policy system and information-based supervision. However, in the course of the development of agricultural insurance, a variety of deep-seated contradictions still remain to be resolved. Li Jianhua, Director of the Finance Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, said: "At present, agricultural insurance still has problems such as low protection levels, a single variety of products and insufficient subsidies."

The report shows that agricultural insurance has wide coverage, and the degree of protection urgently needs to be improved. Most surveyed farming households believe that existing agricultural insurance is insufficient to cover 50% of losses, and low claims have become the main reason why respondents did not purchase agricultural insurance. Farming households have a strong demand for agricultural insurance products with low burdens and high protection, and agricultural cooperatives and leading agricultural enterprises in particular have a more urgent demand for price insurance. Yet there are still three major difficulties in promoting agricultural insurance: farmers' insufficient understanding of agricultural insurance and low enthusiasm for taking out insurance; insufficient fiscal subsidy capacity; and a lack of special funds and personnel for agricultural insurance work.