Agricultural Insurance System Research Articles

A way forward on adaptation to climate change in Colombian agriculture: perspectives towards 2050

Policy measures regarding adaptation to climate change include efforts to adjust socio-economic and ecologic systems. Colombia has undertaken various measures in terms of climate change mitigation and adaptation since becoming a party of the Kyoto protocol in 2001 and a party of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1995. The first national communication to the UNFCCC stated how Colombian agriculture will be severely impacted under different emission scenarios and time frames. The analyses in this document further support that climate change will severely threaten the socioeconomics of Colombian agriculture. We first query national data sources to characterize the agricultural sector. We then use 17 Global Circulation Model (GCM) outputs to quantify how Colombian agricultural production may be affected by climate change, and show the expected changes to years 2040–2069 (“2050”) under the A2 scenario of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES-A2) and the overall trends in both precipitation and temperature to 2100. We then evaluate expected changes within different regions and measure the proportion of area affected within each crop’s distributional range. By 2050, climatic change in Colombia will likely impact 3.5 million people, 14 % of national GDP corresponding to agriculture, employment of 21 % of the population, agro-industries, supply chains, and food and nutritional security. If no adaptation measures are taken, 80 % of crops would be impacted in more than 60 % of their current areas of cultivation, with particularly severe impacts in high value perennial and exportable crops. Impacts also include soil degradation and organic matter losses in the Andes hillsides; likely flooding in the Caribbean and Pacific coasts; niche losses for coffee, fruit, cocoa, and bananas; changes in prevalence of pests and diseases; and increases in the vulnerabilities of non-technically developed smallholders. There is, however, still time to change the current levels of vulnerability if a multidisciplinary focus (i.e., agronomic, economic, and social) in vulnerable sectors is undertaken. Each sub-sector and the Government need to invest in: (1) data collection, (2) detailed, regionally-based impact assessments, (3) research and development, and (4) extension and technology transfer. Support to vulnerable smallholders should be given by the state in the form of agricultural insurance systems contextualized under the phenomenon of climate change. A national coordination scheme led by (but not restricted to) the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR) with the contributions of national and international institutions is needed to address agricultural adaptation.

Reasons and Improving Strategies of Slow Development of Agricultural Insurance System in China

In order to establish modern agriculture and reduce harmful effects of natural disasters to agriculture, developing agricultural insurance and improving agricultural management system are essential. This paper firstly elaborated the feasibility and importance of improving agricultural economy, and analyzed some reasons which restricted China agricultural insurance developing speed, and then gave some improving suggestions in the end.

Farmer's Adaptation to Climate Risk in the Context of China -

Frequently unknown climate change increases the risk of agriculture, more attention have been paid to agricultural system itself in the research field, but few has been attached to the perspective of social dimension. Based on the research on Yangtze River Basin of China, the paper has adopted vulnerability theory including the exposure of agricultural ecosystem, farmers’ sensitivity to exposure and adaptive capacity to climate risk, to explain farmer's adaptation to climate risk. It concludes that climate change has increased climate risk in agriculture and the uncertainty of agricultural production. Confronting climate risk in agriculture, different farming bodies have shown different farm and off-farm/non-farm adaptations in pre-risk, during risk and post-risk, which has reduced their short-term vulnerability. Household life cycle, pressure, institution, available resources and technologies are the key influential factors. From the adaptation in long term, it still requires external support and more investment including agricultural insurance system, village-level information and technology dissemination mechanism.

Is there a relation between risk rate and the insurance premium in agricultural insurances?. An application to the citrus sector

Agricultural insurance has an essential role as a tool for risk reduction. This is especially important in a changing and uncertain environment as in agriculture. Insurance acts as a compensating mechanism of loss and risk transference between insured and insurer. This paper aims to find if there is a concluding relationship amongst the rates applied by insurance companies; the insurance premium applied to the insured farmers; the real risk level that farms face and the indemnifications that farmers get after a disaster. There were 418 citrus tree farms analysed in Murcia region (Spain) in the period 2002-2006. They were in the line called "Multicultivo de Cítricos y Complementario" (Citrus Multi-crop and Complementary). The correlation coefficients of the different analyses are close to zero (between 0.047 and 0.053). This indicates no relation between the real risk and the rate that insurance companies use. The rate is almost a constant, with no dependence on the risk of suffering damage. The main conclusion is that the present agricultural insurance system is not discriminating enough and the settlement of insurance premiums that insurance companies apply does not maintain any relation to the essential element that should direct an insurance contract: the risk that a disaster has occurred.

An Introduction to the Development and Regulation of Agricultural Insurance in China

The importance of agriculture in a country with 1.3 billion people is self-evident. Agricultural insurance, however, did not emerge in China until the 1930s. Having gone through twists and turns, agricultural insurance is now widely recognised as an important means of protection for production and for the life of people in rural areas. Under the guidance and with the support of the government at all levels, pilot projects of agricultural insurance are being carried out. The China Insurance Regulatory Commission is strengthening its supervision of agricultural business and exploring a set of regulations for this sector. As a result, the market is growing quickly; the market structure has become more diversified and more products are available. In the pilot efforts to find a good model for agricultural insurance in China, some successful experiments have been made. Policy support is found to be a necessity in a sustainable agricultural insurance system for China. Local differences should receive appropriate attention and innovation should be encouraged to create a practical agricultural system that satisfies local needs in a large country like China.

Agression du personnel en contact avec le public : de l'agression vécue à la prévention

The Agricultural Social Mutual Insurance System (MSA) has been mobilised to support a corporate approach in the perspective to decrease mortal acts of violence or aggression. The plan brought together the skills of all the companies' actors (management, hygiene committees, safety and working conditions committee, occupational health and safety at work, and salaried workers). The MSA occupational health departments carried out a situational inventory (through a survey of salaried workers exposed to the risk of aggression). An intervention methodology was addressed to the occupational medical practitioners (PECVAT Protocol). A corporate framework agreement has specified the plan that was developed by company and the actors concerned. Finally, an evaluation enabled them to define the level at which this prevention intervention should be implemented.

Insurance products and services for agriculturists.

Natural Calamities and other highly dangerous situations existing in agriculture are the factors that can overturn the results of the agricultural process. That is why maintainig a certain degree of certitude in what concerns the obtainance of stable and efficient results implies the protection through insurance and reinsurance in this field. The aim of this paper is to make an inventory of the types of insurances offered to the agriculturists by the insurance companies and, starting from this, to act as a framework of suggestions for choosing complex insurance products and services available in this category. The authors start from the premiss that in the centre of the agricultural insurance system should be the agricultural producer, that is why the insurance protection should regard: the insurance of the agricultural cultures and of the vineyard products owned by agricultors, regardless of the organisational form in which the process of production takes place; animal insurance; the complex insurance of the household, including the insurance of the buidings. An overall view should include the creation of a system of pension insurances for agriculturists, in a legal, institutional framework, with distinct resources and expenses.

The Czech agricultural insurance market and a prediction of its development in the context of the European Union

In the market economy, agriculture ranks among the important political and economic issues. Risks associated with agricultural activity can be catastrophic. For farmers and farms, damages resulting from materialized risks represent significant and existence-threatening problems. For the state, damages in agriculture can endanger the food supply chain, cause fluctuation in employment or jeopardize the state’s foreign-policy position due to lack of self-sufficiency. This is why it is necessary to discuss the methods and ways to deal with the problem, to eliminate agricultural risks or to minimize their occurrence and materialization. One of the possible ways is insurance. With regard to these facts, the author attempts to make an analysis of the possible ways to eliminate risks that endanger agricultural production and, according to this analysis, to describe the basic approaches to minimizing or eliminating the materialization of risks associated with agricultural activity. Subsequently, the author focuses on agricultural insurance systems in the countries of the European Union, and on the present-day situation in the field of agricultural insurance in the Czech Republic.