Crop insurance schemes depend on two things Crop insurance schemes depend on two things: a relatively complex set of mathematical tools and reliable data on many different variables, ranging from weather to agricultural output. Insurance companies can protect farmers from harm, but they need reliable statistics which, all too often, are unavailable in developing countries.
Crop Insurance in the USA (2010) As its proponents hoped, crop insurance has become the largest single source of financial protection to farmers. From insuring 182.2 million acres in 1997, the program has grown to cover more than 264.6 million acres, a slight drop from the 272.7 million acres in crop year 2008. According to National Crop Insurance Services, the program is meeting the Congressional mandate of insuring 80 percent of insurable farmland.
The Role of Reinsurance in Agricultural Insurance Reinsurers are playing often a key role in developing new agricultural insurance markets. In agriculture, finance of inputs and lending for crop inputs is very often linked to the availability of crop insurance and hence reinsurance. Being in the financial service industry Partner Re sees its role in providing risk capital for risk transfer with all the financial services that go along with that process. For Partner Re the sector of agriculture insurance has been defined clearly as a main strategic target.
Agricultural insurance in Europe There is considerable diversity in the range of agricultural insurance schemes available in Member States throughout Europe. Some of these are subsidised by Member States and others purely privately funded. Insurance is probably the best known tool for risk management but the nature of agriculture presents a number of issues. For example, systemic risks (i.e. a lot of people suffer losses at the same time) make it necessary for insurance companies to charge very high premiums if state contributions are not available. These premiums are often unaffordable for many farmers. Because of this, comprehensive agricultural insurance schemes therefore need strong support from the public sector.
Crop Moisture Stress Index The Moisture Stress Index for corn and soybean crops is a measure of the effects of drought and catastrophic wetness on national crop yield and is calculated through the use of a drought index (the Palmer Z Index) and annual average crop productivity values within each U.S. climate division. Moisture stress, either a lack or an abundance of soil moisture during critical phases of the crop growth and development cycle, affects US average crop yield, particularly when moisture stress occurs in the most highly productive crop growing areas. Soil moisture conditions in July and August were found to be the best indicators of average crop yield for corn and soybeans, and as such, are used in creating the Moisture Stress Index.
Sustainability and Scalability of Index-Based Insurance for Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods Farmers face a variety of market and production risks that make their incomes volatile from year to year. In many cases, farmers also confront the risk of catastrophe, as, for example, when crops are destr oyed by drought or pest outbreaks or when assets and lives are lost to hurricanes and floods. These risks are particularly burdensome to the poor, including many small farmers. Unless adequately managed, they can slow economic development and poverty reduction and contribute to humanitarian crises.
Covariate risks, especially those that involve catastrophic losses, pose special difficulties and costs. Past attempts by governments and relief agencies to help manage covariate risks have been costly and often ineffective. Today there is much interest in index insurance products that might provide a more effective and market-mediated solution.
Future of Crop Insurance in Volatile Markets This paper addresses the U.S. public-private partnership for crop insurance and its recent performance and future prospects, including possible public policy issues. Key challenges are the intersection of insurance with other farm programs, concerns over program costs and private company returns, and funding issues related to the large U.S. Federal budget deficit. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of World Trade Organization (WTO) disciplines for crop insurance and their implications for the growth of insurance solutions for agricultural risk management.
SystemAgro: sustainable crop insurance in response to climate change Long-term crop insurance is operated across more than 200 million hectares of agricultural land around the world. For more than 35 years, valuable experience has been gathered on this crop insurance system. Munich Re has filtered out the characteristics of the system which are responsible for its long-term success and defined them as a 'best practice' for crop insurance.
Quality Gaps in Crop Insurance Mold and other quality losses are rarely severe enough to trigger crop insurance claims, as I found out when reporting today's news story on how growers will be compensated for their sub-par crops. Kernel damage and low test weights must meet thresholds before insurance adjustments trigger. In practice, crop insurers told me, it's hard for growers to get fully paid for dockage and they believe that will be the case with this latest outbreak of white mold in the Illinois and Indiana corn crops.
Agricultural Insurance Schemes (Executive Summary, 2008) Agricultural producers face a series of risks affecting the income and welfare of their households. These are mainly production risks related to weather conditions, pests and diseases, market conditions, etc. Consequently, the income stability of agricultural stakeholders can be also affected. In recent years the European Union has been considering a possible integration of risk management in the common
agricultural policy and is analysing risk and crisis management strategies to provide an improved response to crises in the agricultural sector.
This report reviews the agricultural risk management systems in the EU (candidate countries Turkey and Croatia are also analysed) with a special focus on types of agricultural insurance, although no data could be collected for Malta. The most descriptive part of the study contains a collection of data on the realities and modalities of agricultural insurance in Europe. This information mainly comes from
fact sheets filled in by experts or cons
07.06.2010 Adjusting Hail and Storm Damage on Maize seminar - September 8-10, 2010, Switzerland International Association of Agricultural Production Insurers offers a seminar on hail and storm damage on corn. The seminar is jointly organized by the association and Swiss Hail. the seminar will be conducted on September 8-10, 2010 in Egerkingen. Enrolment - by August 1, 2010. 12.04.2010 Remote Sensing Index-Based Crop Insurance Working Group meeting - August 10-11, 2010, USA The 2nd International Working Group On Remote Sensing Index-Based Crop Insurance will take place on August 10-11, 2010 in San Francisco, CA at the Fairmont Hotel. Practical technical issues related to implementing satellite derived index based crop insurance will be discussed.
Position of the administration of www.agroinsurance.com web-site may not coincide with the position of the authors. Administration does not bear responsibility for information contained in the documents created by third parties and placed at this web-site. For replication and use of copyrighted documents the users should contact administration.
Back
Top
Events
