Agricultural insurance paid out 80 million in claims over four years; dedicated legislation would offer more solid protection

With extreme climate trends, the weather is becoming harder and harder to predict, and farmers who depend on the sky for their livelihood have no outlet for their grievances. Lee Tsung-yung, deputy director-general of the Agricultural Finance Agency under the Council of Agriculture, estimates that disaster losses average 12.3 billion yuan per year, but the cash relief issued by the Council of Agriculture is only 3.1 billion yuan, meaning farmers must bear 75% of disaster losses themselves, making the promotion of agricultural insurance imperative.

In 2015, the Council of Agriculture launched its first policy, with 89 policies insured that year; to date, cumulative total insured policies have reached 17,112; total insured area has also increased from 51 hectares to 28,268 hectares, with 850 claims paid over the past four years, amounting to 82.52 million. Chen Chi-chung, chairman of the Council of Agriculture, stated, "This is currently only a pilot program; in the future we are moving toward dedicated legislation, and the draft articles have already been sent to the Executive Yuan for review, and we hope to send it to the Legislative Yuan in the next session."

Council of Agriculture: dedicated legislation for agricultural insurance, striving to send it to the Legislative Yuan in the next session

Chen Chi-chung further stated that last year the weather was stable and crops had a bumper harvest, causing prices to fall and farmers' incomes to decrease; but in a year like 2016 when the weather was bad, disaster losses amounted to nearly 40 billion, and the Council of Agriculture allocated only 9.8 billion yuan in subsidies. "Whether the weather is good or bad, it's bad for farmers. The Council of Agriculture wants to develop a system to protect farmers' incomes. With agricultural insurance, every one yuan the Council of Agriculture puts in can achieve at least a three- to four-fold effect."

Lee Tsung-yung explained that the Council of Agriculture will also continue to develop new policies to meet farmers' actual needs, and further investigate to make premiums more reasonable. Furthermore, it will strengthen technological disaster assessment, which can speed up claims efficiency and reduce claims disputes. "Agricultural insurance frees farmers from depending on the sky for their livelihood. We will expand the pilot program to accumulate experience and actively promote legislation for an agricultural insurance law."

Chen Chi-chung emphasized that a farmer welfare system must be established, with four major insurance programs as an important foundation, including farmers' health insurance, farmers' occupational accident insurance, agricultural insurance, and a farmer retirement system. Among these, agricultural insurance can prevent farmers from depending on the sky for their livelihood. "This is currently only a pilot program; in the future we are moving toward dedicated legislation, and the draft articles have already been sent to the Executive Yuan for review, and we hope to send it to the Legislative Yuan in the next session."

Chen Chi-chung: Cabbage production registration is also in the spirit of insurance

Facing last year's cabbage price collapse, Chen Chi-chung stated that the Council of Agriculture is currently developing a cabbage production registration system. "To some extent it is insurance; as long as farmers register, their income will be ensured."

In addition, the first step is to implement the production and marketing information early warning system. In the past, seedling warnings were given when farmers planned to plant; "now it is moved forward by one month. When farmers place orders with seedling businesses, we already have the information, letting farmers know one month in advance." Furthermore, domestic oversupply will be resolved through processing and exports; if that still doesn't work, at least cabbage will be purchased from farmers at the production site at six yuan per kilogram to ensure their income.

In the future, this will not be limited to cabbage only; even bananas will be successively studied. Chen Chi-chung emphasized that there is still a long way to go to keep external climate from affecting farmers' incomes, but the Council of Agriculture will go all out to ensure farmers' income stability.