Benefits brought by agricultural insurance to farmers

First, the status of agricultural insurance in China

China is a traditional agricultural country, with rural population accounting for 85% of the total population. Rural economy plays an important role in the economic structure of China. China is also one of the countries with the most serious natural disasters in the world, so it is particularly important to transfer the huge risks in agricultural production and protect farmers' lives, property and economic achievements from accidental losses. Due to the imperfection of China's social security system, rural natural disaster relief channels mainly rely on state financial transfer payments, and the proportion of commercial insurance relief is very low. In economically underdeveloped areas, rural commercial insurance has not been involved. Since 1982 resumed agricultural insurance business, China's agricultural insurance has been in a state of recession for a long time. In recent years, China's insurance industry has developed vigorously, and the unbalanced development of agricultural insurance has become increasingly prominent. From 1992 to 2004, the agricultural insurance premium income decreased from 8170,000 yuan to 396 million yuan. By 2004, the per capita premium will be less than that of 0.5 yuan. From 1985 to 2004, agricultural insurance has remained high in payout ratio, with the comprehensive payout ratio reaching 120%, which is much higher than the recognized profit critical point of the insurance industry by 70%. In this case, in order to promote the development of agricultural insurance, since 2004, the central government has issued six "No.1 documents" in succession, emphasizing the importance of policy-based agricultural insurance pilot. The development situation of agricultural insurance in China is grim, and it has reached the point where it must be accelerated.

Second, the main problems of agricultural insurance

The reasons for the slow development of agricultural insurance mainly lie in related policy factors, the attitudes of local governments and insurance companies and farmers' understanding of this.

(1) Farmers have low incomes and lack enthusiasm for insurance.

In the past few years, due to the oversupply of many agricultural products, prices have fallen, and farmers' agricultural income has decreased. It is particularly difficult for farmers to increase their income. From 65438 to 0997, the per capita net agricultural income of farmers was 65438 yuan to 0268 yuan, and from 2003 to 2009, the net agricultural income of farmers was lower than this level for six consecutive years. At this low income level, the real disposable income of every farmer, after deducting all kinds of taxes and fees, living expenses, children's education expenses, purchasing fertilizers, pesticides, feed, etc., is very small. Most farmers obviously can't accept paying agricultural insurance premiums again. At the same time, due to the strict scale control and complicated operation of agricultural insurance, the opinions of both parties are often quite different when evaluating compensation, and some farmers who originally wanted to participate in the insurance often chose to give up. In addition, in the 1980s, farmers paid pensions at social security stations, but they were not effectively guaranteed, which also made some farmers lack confidence in insurance, so their enthusiasm for participating in insurance was not high.

(B) the strength of insurance companies is insufficient, and traditional agricultural insurance is unsustainable.

Agricultural insurance is a kind of insurance that depends on the weather, and it is often in the year of catastrophe that the accumulation of funds in previous years can be eaten up. The proportion of agricultural disasters in China is over 40% every year, which is higher than that in developed countries 10%-20%. In recent years, the annual agricultural losses caused by natural disasters in China are about 65.438+0.25 billion yuan, while the average annual loss in the world is only about 50 billion yuan, that is to say, China accounts for 65.438+0.4. Agricultural insurance is a kind of insurance with low cost, high risk and high payout ratio. The break-even point is 65%~70% capital preservation. The large area and unpredictability of natural disasters and epidemics make insurance companies technically unable to avoid risks, and the premiums collected are not enough to maintain compensation. Therefore, the risk of operating agricultural insurance at present is far greater than other property insurance products. If the strength of insurance companies is insufficient, it is difficult to operate agricultural insurance, so there are only a handful of insurance companies that develop agricultural insurance. At present, only PICC P&C Insurance Company and China United Property Insurance Company provide agricultural insurance, and their business is also shrinking sharply due to perennial losses. (3) The state's financial support is not enough.

Agricultural insurance is different from disaster relief of civil affairs departments and general commercial insurance. It not only involves income redistribution in rural areas, but also requires consistency with the government's policy objectives. At present, the government only gives preferential treatment to agricultural insurance from business tax, which is obviously not enough. The state should introduce relevant laws and policies as soon as possible, increase financial subsidies, and let insurance companies really see benefits. Only when commercial insurance companies see the benefits of agricultural insurance can they spontaneously develop the market. The current agricultural insurance market is unprofitable. In this case, if there is no high government subsidy, property insurance companies will not take the initiative to enter, and those who have already entered will gradually have the idea of giving up this part of their business. Agricultural insurance is a socialized systematic project, and its foundation should be government behavior. China's agricultural insurance has developed to an embarrassing stage. Commercial insurance has been proved to be unsuitable for China's decentralized, family-based "small farmers" mode of production, so the state must "cover the bottom". Relevant departments should introduce relevant supporting policies as soon as possible, otherwise the development of agricultural insurance can only stay at the stage of "shouting".

(D) The moral hazard of agricultural insurance is relatively high.

China agriculture is based on family production, which is relatively dispersed and prone to moral hazard. Therefore, the underwriting procedure of agricultural insurance is more complicated, and the cost of survey and claim settlement is higher. Before the insurance company compensates the losses of the insured farmers, the investigation procedure is complicated and the human and financial resources consumed are relatively large. If the insurance company is slightly negligent, some insured farmers may falsely report their losses and gain additional benefits. The organizational system of agricultural insurance is decentralized.

The existing agricultural insurance organizations, such as insurance companies operating alone, insurance companies operating jointly with local governments, and insurance cooperatives, are scattered and cannot fully mobilize the enthusiasm of the government, insurers and insured. At the same time, the policy insurance institutions are not perfect, and it is difficult to reflect the main role of the agricultural insurance organization system. All these have restricted the rapid development of agricultural insurance.

(vi) Lack of agricultural insurance professionals.

The extreme shortage of talents has become an important factor restricting the rapid development of insurance industry in China. Agricultural insurance involves many disciplines, such as agricultural economic management, commercial insurance, agricultural financial budget, agricultural meteorology, farmland water conservancy, animal husbandry and veterinary, etc., covering a wide range and requiring cooperation in many aspects. At present, most agricultural insurance practitioners in China have not received special insurance education, and because of the scattered agricultural insurance business, the workload of survey quota and compensation is greater than other types of insurance, coupled with backward rural infrastructure, inconvenient transportation and bad working environment, many insurance practitioners stay away from agricultural insurance. Many reasons lead to the low professional quality of agricultural insurance practitioners, especially the serious shortage of technical talents such as underwriting, claims settlement and actuarial science and compound talents such as management, marketing and training, which greatly restricts the rapid development of the insurance industry. (seven) less insurance, weak research and development capabilities.

Although agricultural insurance has developed to some extent, the product structure of insurance is still unreasonable, with few products, low quality, slow updating speed and lack of pertinence. There are very few products tailored to farmers' income level and risk status, which cannot meet the diversified needs of the market. This is also directly related to the lack of agricultural insurance professionals and the weak research and development ability of insurance products.

Three, to speed up the development of China's agricultural insurance countermeasures

(1) Strengthen agricultural insurance legislation.

Agricultural risks are related to a certain extent, so the standardized, orderly and healthy development of agricultural insurance depends more on the support of perfect laws and regulations. In view of the particularity of agricultural insurance, many countries attach great importance to the legislation of agricultural insurance and formulate implementation rules to ensure the stable and healthy operation of agricultural insurance system and protect farmers' interests. However, at present, China does not have a complete set of agricultural insurance laws. Drawing lessons from the successful experience of foreign agricultural insurance, China should legislate on agricultural insurance as soon as possible, clearly stipulate the purpose, goal, scope, level, rate determination, compensation standard and implementation mode of agricultural insurance in the form of law, and gradually establish the compensation mechanism of agricultural insurance.

(two) the establishment of a comprehensive agricultural insurance company.

With the increasingly fierce competition in the insurance market, commercial insurance companies have no time to take into account the role of agricultural insurance in ensuring agricultural development and rural economy and society, and the business model of commercial insurance companies undertaking agricultural insurance can no longer meet the needs of the real society. Agricultural insurance should be separated from commercial insurance, and then property insurance and personal insurance should be considered together to establish a comprehensive agricultural insurance company with policy. Gradually form a perfect organizational system with the macro-control of national agricultural insurance companies as the guidance, regional management of provincial agricultural insurance companies as the business leading, and agricultural insurance cooperatives at county and township levels as the main business. This is not only in line with the national agricultural policy, but also in line with the fundamental interests of the country.

(3) The government should give special policy support.

At present, China's agricultural insurance is exempt from business tax, and other aspects are the same as commercial insurance. To develop agricultural insurance, it is not enough to rely solely on insurance companies, but must be supported by supporting policies. In this regard, we can learn from foreign practices. The development of agricultural insurance in other countries in the world shows that the active policy operation of the government is an important guarantee for the development of agricultural insurance. Agricultural policy insurance is the supply of agricultural insurance led by the government. The government takes agricultural insurance as a special quasi-public product, gives support such as operating subsidies, and is responsible for providing or designating institutions to operate it. The purpose of operating institutions is to provide economic compensation for the risk loss of agricultural production, not profit. In view of the characteristics of vast rural areas and unbalanced development in China, preferential policies are given to insurance products developed by insurance companies to serve agriculture, countryside and farmers, such as giving priority to enterprises that declare such products to open insurance company licenses. At the same time, the insurance industry should provide classified guidance and serve agriculture, countryside and farmers. For example, in places with slow economic development, priority should be given to the development of disaster prevention and loss prevention products to ensure normal agricultural production.

(4) Establishing agricultural legal insurance.

According to the principle of insurance law of large numbers, the higher the participation rate, the greater the stability coefficient, which tends to be reasonable. However, due to the influence of social environment, economic environment, natural environment and ability to pay, the insured's ability to participate in insurance varies greatly from place to place. According to regional differences, some statutory agricultural insurance can be set up, just like the third party liability insurance in auto insurance. This will help to improve the insurance awareness of policyholders, enhance the fund accumulation of insurance companies and stabilize the operation of agricultural insurance. The insurance premium of statutory insurance can be initially provided by the finance, allocated from the poverty alleviation fund, or mobilized by the society as a donation to Hope Primary School.

(five) the establishment of agricultural insurance reinsurance mechanism.

Agricultural natural disasters occur frequently in China, and agricultural insurance is a high-risk insurance. The sustainable development of agricultural insurance must be supported by a sound reinsurance mechanism. The central government should vigorously promote the agricultural insurance reinsurance system. For the production of agricultural, forestry, animal husbandry, fishery and other products related to the development of the national economy, the government should take the lead in organizing domestic commercial insurance companies with reinsurance experience to reinsurance agricultural insurance, so as to spread the risks of agricultural insurance and reduce the risk liability of agricultural insurance.

(6) Establish a multi-channel agricultural insurance system.

China has a vast territory, the development of agriculture and rural economy is unbalanced, and the agricultural risks are quite different. At present, the establishment of a national (policy or non-policy) agricultural insurance company to operate agricultural insurance business in a unified way is not mature in market conditions, management level and risk dispersion mechanism. Therefore, at this stage, the development of agricultural insurance in China should take the road of diversification of organizational forms of business entities. A diversified agricultural insurance management system can be established, including commercial insurance companies, professional agricultural insurance companies, agricultural mutual insurance companies, policy agricultural insurance companies, foreign-funded or joint-venture insurance companies (based on the introduction of advanced technology, management experience and high-quality talents). The specific form should be decided according to different regions, different periods and different economic development conditions. It is necessary to encourage existing commercial insurance companies to develop rural and agricultural insurance business, and at the same time introduce foreign insurance companies with expertise in agricultural insurance to form an agricultural insurance system in various forms and channels.

(7) Strengthening the training of insurance talents.

China is short of insurance talents at present. According to statistics, China needs tens of thousands of new insurance talents every year. Therefore, to develop agricultural insurance, we must also attach importance to personnel training. It is necessary to increase investment in the training of insurance talents and expand the enrollment of colleges and universities. At the same time, strengthen the management of insurance qualifications, carry out various forms of insurance vocational training, and provide talent guarantee for the smooth development of China's agricultural insurance.

In short, the reform and development of China's agricultural insurance has entered a most critical and difficult period. With the gradual implementation of various policies and measures to support agriculture and benefit farmers, and the implementation of the policy of "giving more, taking less and freeing farmers", it is believed that China's agricultural insurance will break the "hard ice" and a new situation will emerge.

Further reading: How to buy insurance, which is good, and teach you how to avoid these "pits" of insurance.