Banana agricultural insurance pioneers drone disaster assessment, what is the claim amount?
The Council of Agriculture has been piloting agricultural insurance one after another. Following fruit insurance for pears, mangoes, wax apples, and pineapples, this year it launched insurance for pomelo and banana plants. Among them, banana plant insurance is the first to combine drone aerial photography technology to assess disaster-damaged area. If the area of lodged banana plants exceeds
The Council of Agriculture has been piloting agricultural insurance one after another. Following fruit insurance for pears, mangoes, wax apples, and pineapples, this year it launched insurance for pomelo and banana plants. Among them, banana plant insurance is the first to combine drone aerial photography technology to assess disaster-damaged area. If the area of lodged banana plants exceeds 20%, compensation can be claimed, with a maximum payout of 288,000 yuan per hectare. This year the Council of Agriculture is piloting the program in Pingtung and Kaohsiung. During the pilot period, in addition to the Council of Agriculture subsidizing half of the premium, banana farmers in Pingtung County can also receive an additional subsidy from the county government covering one quarter of the premium.
Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-chung said on the 19th that over the past 10 years, agricultural products affected by natural disasters have suffered average losses of more than 15 billion, and the Council of Agriculture's current agricultural natural disaster relief measures can only compensate farmers for less than 30% of their losses; however, the challenges brought by extreme climate will only increase, not decrease. Therefore, in addition to requiring local improvement stations to increase pest and disease response and prevention, the Council of Agriculture will also recently send the draft of the “Agricultural Insurance Act” to the Executive Yuan for review, hoping to establish a complete insurance system and accelerate the design of policies for different crops, so that farmers encountering natural disasters will not lose everything. Of the 14 types of agricultural insurance currently being piloted, as of the end of March, total policies taken out numbered about 23,000, with a total insured area of 37,000 hectares. Policies for jujubes, guavas, and lychees are also under development.
Banana insurance starts, drone restrictions exclude no-fly zones and mixed-planting banana orchards
Fubon Insurance explained that this banana insurance was designed according to the characteristic that banana plants are easily broken by strong winds. Combining the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute's aerial photography technology and overlay analysis, when any weather station in the county or city where the insurance is taken out measures a wind speed of 17.2 meters per second (moderate tropical storm), the damage assessment procedure is initiated, and if the affected area is determined to exceed 20%, the claims procedure begins. However, limited by aerial photography technology, applications are currently not accepted for no-fly zones or banana orchards mixed with betel nut, and plants must be taller than 100 cm to be eligible for insurance. The premium is about 41,956 yuan per hectare, of which the Council of Agriculture subsidizes half, and banana farmers in Pingtung County can also receive an additional subsidy from the county government covering one quarter of the premium. Applications can be made until the end of May at farmers' associations in the Kaohsiung-Pingtung area and Fubon Insurance. The 16 policies currently approved are all in Pingtung County, covering about 94 hectares.
Natural disaster subsidies are limited, insurance helps
Kuo Tai-cheng, manager of the Qishan Fruit and Vegetable Marketing Cooperative, who insures banana orchards in Pingtung County, said that the current cash disaster relief is only 75,000 yuan per hectare, which is basically one year's rent for each hectare of land, and personnel costs and materials cannot be protected at all. For example, during several typhoons in the 105th year of the Republic of China, although the plants did not lodge, reduced production still caused losses of nearly 50 million. Because they all accept export orders, the insurance mechanism can reduce some losses.
Insured banana farmer Li Shih-tung said that because his products go through organic channels, prices basically do not fluctuate much with natural disasters, so any natural disaster definitely means losses. In addition, during the pilot period both Pingtung County and the Council of Agriculture provide subsidies, so it is only a little over 10,000 yuan per hectare, which works out to only 5 to 6 yuan per banana plant. If a natural disaster really occurs, the insurance payout plus disaster relief funds can reach nearly 200 yuan per plant. “I would rather the government provide money to subsidize farmers to take out insurance in the future. For farmers, insurance is the best.” In addition, compared with natural disaster relief funds, which involve cumbersome application procedures, the advantage of insurance is that the claim can be received in 3 to 5 days, allowing immediate response to post-disaster restoration needs.