General Manager of PICC Inner Mongolia

Our area is a large agricultural and animal husbandry area, and it is also a dry area. Natural disasters such as drought, hail, and floods occur from time to time. How to leverage the "fulcrum" of agricultural insurance so that it can better serve "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" is still a major research topic currently faced.

At present, major crops such as corn, wheat, soybeans, potatoes, oil crops, and sugar crops in our region have been included in the scope of national and autonomous region financial subsidies. Among them, insurance coverage for major food crops has reached 92%.

The starting point for compensation for general disasters is a loss rate of more than 20%, and the starting point for drought is a loss rate of more than 30%. The maximum limit of compensation is the insured amount of the covered crop.

The lack of insurance for the breeding industry and grass industry

It is not difficult to sort out the development of agricultural insurance in the region and find that agricultural insurance for the planting industry is being promoted year by year, while insurance for the breeding industry and grass industry has only just begun. Test the waters.

In 2005, as one of the first nine agricultural insurance pilot areas in the country, our district began piloting dairy cow insurance. On June 29 of that year, PICC Inner Mongolia Branch signed the region’s first dairy cow insurance policy in Shebiya Village, Saihan District, Hohhot, and 10 cows were insured.

In 2007, our district was listed as one of the six pilot provinces for national policy-based agricultural insurance. The number of underwriting companies has grown from 1 PICC Property and Casualty Insurance Company to 3, namely China United Insurance Company and Anhua Insurance Company have also joined the queue to undertake agricultural insurance. At the same time, three major crop insurances for wheat, corn, and soybeans and reproductive sow insurance were launched in our region. The insured area of ??the three major categories of crops accounted for 40% of the actual sown area that year.

In 2008, the types of agricultural insurance subsidies increased, and crops such as rapeseed and sunflower seeds were included in the scope of agricultural insurance, and the insured area of ??5 types of crops accounted for 90% of the actual sown area. At the same time, reproductive sows and dairy cows are included in the breeding industry insurance premium subsidy species.

Since 2009, our district has added some regional subsidized varieties. For example, Xing'an League, Chifeng City, Xilingol League, and Ulanqab City have launched potato insurance premium subsidy pilot projects. In 2011, Tongliao City, Chifeng City, and Baotou City launched pilot projects for greenhouse insurance premium subsidies. At present, major crops such as corn, wheat, soybeans, potatoes, oil crops, and sugar crops in our region have been included in the scope of national and autonomous region financial subsidies. Among them, insurance coverage for major food crops has reached 92%.

“Although our region’s agricultural insurance development scale, insured area, number of insured farmers and herdsmen, amount of financial subsidies and other indicators are at the forefront of the country, among the existing premium subsidy varieties, the breeding industry There are too few premium subsidy varieties, and mutton sheep, the main breeding species of the autonomous region’s livestock industry, have not been included in the region’s agricultural insurance premium subsidy varieties,” said an expert from the Autonomous Region Academy of Social Sciences.

The expert pointed out that mutton sheep are the main livestock raised by herder families in our region, accounting for more than a quarter of the total income. However, seasonal natural disasters occur frequently in vast pastoral areas, and herdsmen have poor ability to withstand natural disasters. Once a disaster occurs, the damage will be huge, and many herdsmen families will become poor. Therefore, breeding species such as mutton sheep urgently need to be included in the scope of agricultural insurance premium subsidies in our district.

The relevant person in charge of the Autonomous Region Insurance Industry Association also pointed out that the underwriting rate of policy-based aquaculture insurance in our region is low. At present, our district has had more than 100 million livestock for 10 consecutive years. However, in 2013, our district insured 1.2429 million livestock, which only accounted for 1% of the 120 million livestock that year. If all the benefits are guaranteed, the potential premiums for aquaculture insurance alone will be billions or even tens of billions. How to increase the underwriting ratio is a difficult problem that policy-based aquaculture insurance must solve in the future.

Some commercial insurance companies are trying to carry out mutton sheep breeding insurance. In June this year, the Chifeng City Linxi County Branch of PICC Property and Casualty Insurance Company of China issued the first commercial sheep breeding insurance policy in the region, covering 2,156 sheep in Wujiazi Town, Dayingzi Township, and Linxi Town, Linxi County, Chifeng City The base ewe provides $1.72 million in insurance cover. This is undoubtedly a good start for the promotion of mutton insurance!

Last year, China United cooperated with Xilinhot Caodu Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Company to pilot the first grass industry insurance in China. This year, it also piloted alfalfa insurance in Ulanqabfeng Town. The relevant person in charge of the Autonomous Region Insurance Industry Association pointed out: “At present, the autonomous region’s grassland area is 78.804 million hectares. If the alfalfa and grass industry insurance pilot is successful, it will become another development highlight of the autonomous region’s agricultural insurance.

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Industry insiders pointed out that promoting aquaculture insurance requires the government to play a functional role and actively strive to include local aquaculture species with industrial support into the scope of policy insurance subsidies; to establish insurance companies and local large-scale aquaculture leaders The enterprise docking platform uses the insurance status of livestock in large-scale breeding enterprises as an important indicator for bank credit; the veterinary department plays an active role and formulates relevant reward and punishment policies in terms of disease prevention and control, ear tag wearing, and harmless treatment.

Insurance companies are not very enthusiastic about underwriting

After the snow disaster at the end of 2012, Fu Jinghua and more than 10 greenhouse growers raised the premiums, but they were given a cold reception by the insurance companies. , the proportion of these large shantytowns in the entire shantytown is too small, and insurance companies are unwilling to insure them.

An insurance industry insider said frankly that agricultural insurance has low profits and high risks, and is a "unprofitable business." "The enthusiasm of enterprises for underwriting is not high.

Looking at the development of aquaculture insurance in recent years, it has been difficult to develop and has shown a downward trend. In the final analysis, the aquaculture insurance is in a loss-making stage and the insurance company is unprofitable. Correspondingly Compared with other insurance businesses, the profitability of agricultural insurance is much lower than that of other insurance products. Therefore, for comprehensive commercial insurance companies, agricultural insurance has low profits and low enthusiasm for underwriting. Professional agricultural insurance companies are eager to expand other types of insurance. In order to spread the risks brought by agricultural insurance

“At present, there are 6 companies in the autonomous region that are qualified to operate agricultural insurance, but in recent years, only 3 insurance companies have actually undertaken it, and the 2008 policy has been adopted. Regional division and lack of competition have restricted the improvement of agricultural insurance service levels. "The relevant person in charge of the Autonomous Region Insurance Industry Association pointed out.

According to the "Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region 2012 Agricultural Insurance Premium Subsidy Implementation Plan", the agricultural insurance premium subsidy work in our region follows "government guidance, market operation, independent voluntariness, and coordination At present, governments at all levels regard promoting agricultural insurance as an important task. The effectiveness of this work mainly depends on expanding insurance coverage, reducing insurance premiums, and striving for as much insurance compensation as possible. In terms of payment, this is obviously different from the purpose of insurance companies. Companies that carry out agricultural insurance are commercial enterprises, and profit is their fundamental purpose of doing business. Therefore, due to the inconsistent goals, the government's will. There are many differences in the business philosophy of insurance companies. In addition, agricultural insurance subsidy funds from some regional government departments are insufficient, and delays in disbursement have dampened the enthusiasm of insurance companies for underwriting.

Relevant experts from the Autonomous Region Academy of Social Sciences pointed out. In the future, a good policy environment and atmosphere should be created for agricultural insurance companies, and the scope of responsibilities of relevant government management agencies and the scope of business activities of agricultural commercial insurance companies should be clearly defined, so as to avoid unreasonable interference by government departments in agricultural insurance companies. , explore the establishment of a reasonable policy-based agricultural insurance risk transfer and allocation mechanism, establish agricultural reinsurance companies, guide agricultural insurance companies to provide reinsurance to reinsurance companies, transfer agricultural insurance risks, diversify business risks, and eliminate insurance companies' worries. .

Farmers’ insurance awareness needs to be strengthened

Our district’s policy-based planting industry insurance is implemented with financial subsidies of 90% of the premiums at the central, provincial, league and county levels, and farmers themselves Pay 10%; dairy cow insurance is 50% subsidized by the Ministry of Finance, farmers and leading enterprises share 15%, and the rest is subsidized by the autonomous region-level finance; 50% of the insurance premium for fertile sows is subsidized by the central finance, and 50% is subsidized by the autonomous region-level finance 20%, the finance of league cities and banner counties each subsidizes 10%, and the remaining 10% is borne by farmers; fattening pig insurance is 50% subsidized by the central finance, 20% by the autonomous region finance, 10% each by the finance of league cities, banner counties, and farmers

As for farmers’ self-financed portion, some farmers are unwilling to bear it. Wang Mengning, general manager of the Agricultural Insurance Division and Sannong Insurance Department of the Inner Mongolia Branch of the China People’s Insurance Company, told reporters: “Since 2007, the state has Since the implementation of the fiscally subsidized agricultural insurance policy, this year has been the eighth year of implementation of the policy. Premium subsidies for agricultural insurance are a green box policy recognized by the WTO. Using insurance instead of direct subsidies has no impact on reducing natural disasters. It has played a positive role in the impact of agricultural insurance production, stabilizing farmers' income increase, and promoting the development of agriculture and rural economy. Judging from the situation in our region, the majority of farmers and herdsmen have a high degree of awareness of planting insurance for major grain, cotton and oil crops, and are highly motivated to participate in insurance.

However, the willingness to participate in insurance for the breeding industry needs to be further improved due to limitations on individual payment capabilities. ”

Industry insiders pointed out that the lack of agricultural insurance training and the small number of insurance company outlets in towns and villages have caused the majority of farmers to have only a superficial knowledge of agricultural insurance, resulting in a gap in their insurance awareness. The reporter learned that in some villages, Because the insurance company's outlets are not yet widespread, farmers have no way to apply for insurance.

As the largest property and casualty insurance company in our region, the Inner Mongolia Branch of PICC Property and Casualty Insurance Company has currently established 273 insurance companies in central towns and villages in the region. The “Three Rural Areas” insurance marketing service department has the functions of developing business and issuing orders, 326 “Three Rural Areas” insurance service stations with insurance consultation and service functions have been set up in surrounding towns, and 3,156 “Three Rural Areas” insurance service points have been set up in administrative villages this year. , the company also applied to the Autonomous Region Insurance Regulatory Bureau to build 178 new township-level "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" marketing service departments, striving to cover all towns and villages in our region within 2 to 3 years.

According to the data. Wang Mengning said that it is of great benefit to farmers to buy agricultural insurance. During the insurance period, due to heavy rain, floods, wind disasters, hail disasters, freeze disasters, droughts, pests and diseases, the insured crops will be directly damaged or lost, and the degree of loss reaches the contract level. Farmers can receive compensation according to the agreed starting point. The starting point for general disaster is a loss rate of more than 30%. The maximum limit of compensation for drought is the insured amount of each variety. The insurance amount varies and is determined by the actual physical cost of the farmer's investment. For example, it is 400 yuan for wetland corn, 220 yuan for dryland corn, 170 yuan for rapeseed, and 250 yuan for sunflower seeds.

In China, insurance companies in many provinces and regions are already exploring pilot index agricultural insurance products. For example, Anhui has launched rice planting weather index insurance, Chengdu has launched vegetable price index insurance, Beijing has launched the country’s first pig price index insurance, and Jiangsu has launched domestic The first index-based aquatic product insurance. These index-based insurance products effectively simplify the complicated work of survey and loss assessment and improve the degree of risk control. Our district has also launched pilot projects for vegetable planting cost insurance and pig price index insurance subsidies in some areas. . In the next step, our district’s agricultural insurance management company will learn from the successful experience of index insurance development in advanced areas and develop index insurance suitable for the region based on the development characteristics of the autonomous region’s agriculture and animal husbandry, such as beef cattle, mutton sheep index insurance, potato output value insurance, etc.

In the face of disasters, we will regret it, but should we have the awareness to prepare for a rainy day?

Experts suggest that an agricultural insurance information inquiry platform should be established so that insured farmers (breeders) can independently , freely inquire about insurance, claims and other related information, and encourage farmers (breeders) to safeguard their own rights and interests.

In addition, a diversified investment mechanism for agricultural insurance should be established. Currently, all natural risks are caused by agricultural production. Operators bear the responsibility, and agricultural producers have limited ability to invest in agricultural insurance. Therefore, the old concept of "whoever farms bears the risk" should be eradicated, and a new system should be established in which whoever enjoys agricultural products is obliged to share part of the agricultural risks. That is to establish a diversified investment mechanism with the government, enterprises and policyholders as the main players. Then, a new world of agricultural insurance will come.

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