Agricultural insurance fastens the safety belt for agricultural production

Insurance premium subsidies for melon and vegetable greenhouse insurance raised to 80%——

Haikou cooperative saves half on its own premium payments

“This time the Haikou municipal government raised the premium subsidy ratio for the disaster-prone melon and vegetable greenhouse insurance to 80%, which is of enormous significance to our cooperative's development of greenhouse vegetables.” Hearing that the government had issued a policy to increase insurance support for agriculture, the head of the Tanlongwan Vegetable Planting Professional Cooperative in Sanmenpo Town, Haikou City, Hainan Province, said that previously the cooperative had to pay 40% of the premium itself, but now it only needs to pay 20%. In particular, under the new policy, if a single loan is 1 million yuan, full interest subsidies can save the cooperative 40,000 yuan in interest each year.

“Decades of prosperity, but back to poverty after one disaster” is a major bottleneck constraining the development of the agricultural economy in Hainan and even across the country. In response, Hainan launched a pilot policy-based agricultural insurance program in 2007. At present, Hainan Province has introduced 14 types of agricultural insurance, including rubber tree wind disaster insurance, Nanfan seed production insurance, and tobacco leaf insurance, all with typical Hainan characteristics.

This Implementation Opinions requires guiding insurance companies to expand the scope of agricultural insurance types and increase the range of agricultural insurance types urgently needed by Haikou City. This time, on the basis of the original 10 policy-based agricultural insurance varieties with fiscal subsidies, Haikou City added 4 specialty agricultural insurance types: Wenchang chicken breeding, local black goat breeding, aquaculture, and flower planting, expanding Haikou City's agricultural insurance types to 14. Before the disaster, Haikou had about 2,800 mu of greenhouses, of which 1,900 mu were damaged in this typhoon. Among them, 550 mu of greenhouses had insurance, and after the disaster 11.168 million yuan in claims has already been paid. According to reports, previously the premium subsidy ratio for one mu of greenhouse insurance in Haikou City was 60%, with 40% from the provincial finance department and 20% from the municipal finance department, while farmers paid 40% themselves. After this policy adjustment, farmers effectively pay only 20% themselves, in fact half as much.

Using microcredit to help farmers become prosperous has always been the wish of the Hainan Provincial Party Committee and the provincial government, and microcredit interest subsidy work has been listed as one of Hainan Province's top ten livelihood practical matters for two consecutive years.

In 2007, Hainan Province launched a microcredit pilot and was the first to combine government fiscal interest subsidies with microcredit. At present, the amount of subsidized microcredit for farmers has increased from 50,000 yuan to 100,000 yuan, and its use has expanded from the production field to the living field. Microcredit for farmers used to build their own housing has also been included in the interest subsidy scope.

⟦NL> Previously, the municipal and county fiscal funds of Sanya, Qiongzhong, Wuzhishan, Lingshui, Baoting and other cities and counties provided full interest subsidies for microcredit. This time, Haikou City's Implementation Opinions proposes raising the standard for farmer microcredit interest subsidies. Agricultural microcredit for farmers with household registration in the city and for farmer professional cooperatives registered in the city shall both receive full interest subsidies based on the annual benchmark interest rate.

Industry analysis shows that for each farmer with a single loan of 100,000 yuan, under the previous fiscal policy of interest subsidies based on the annual benchmark interest rate, the fiscally subsidized interest rate was 5%, but the loan interest rate might be 7%, so the farmer paid 2% themselves. If for a farmer professional cooperative the fiscally subsidized interest rate was 3%, but the loan interest rate might be 7%. Under the new policy, the fiscal authority provides full subsidies based on the annual benchmark interest rate. The implementation of the new policy will greatly reduce the loan burden on farmers, especially the burden on farmer cooperatives. Industry estimates show that if a single loan is 1 million yuan, full interest subsidies may save a cooperative 40,000 yuan in interest each year. With such a policy, cooperative members are even more motivated to develop the economy. (Guangming)

Zhongku Cooperative distributes agricultural insurance payouts to members

Recently, members of the Zhongku Planting Professional Cooperative in Xidayao Town, Liaoyang City, Liaoning Province, were very happy, because more than 100 member households received 2013 agricultural planting insurance payouts.

On the day of distribution, the courtyard of the Zhongku Planting Professional Cooperative was crowded with people, and hundreds of members lined up here to receive the 2013 insurance payouts. A member of the Zhongku Planting Cooperative said: “I am very happy today. I received the agricultural planting insurance payout. I am very grateful that the planting cooperative enrolled us in agricultural insurance for free, so we no longer have worries when farming.”

In July 2013, due to the impact of wind disasters, the corn fields of the Zhongku Planting Professional Cooperative suffered damage to varying degrees. Fortunately, the cooperative had already insured the broad membership under agricultural planting insurance, and based on the disaster situation received compensation from the insurance company, effectively reducing disaster losses and ensuring farmers' economic interests.

It is understood that the Zhongku Planting Professional Cooperative will also successively distribute agricultural planting insurance payouts to the remaining 280 member households, with the payout amount reaching more than 300,000 yuan. (Gao Yanbing, Wang Xin)