Peasants nationwide gathered outside the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea. They were convening a National Congress to address an existential crisis in rural areas. The protesting peasants called for improved national policies to protect the interests of small-scale food producers amidst climate crises, crop losses, rising input costs, and price volatility.
In Pune, heavy rainfall has led to crop damage across several areas, causing a decrease in the number of vegetable-loaded trucks arriving at Market Yard from the usual 1,200-1,500 to 1,000 on Thursday. This situation has been attributed to the adverse weather conditions experienced in Alandi, Pimpalgaon, Wada, Rajgurunagar, Kude, Pait, Chakan, Kanhersar, Kadus, Bhosari, and Haveli.
Beef farmers located on Prince Edward Island (PEI) in Canada will be offered protection against “an unexpected drop in prices over a defined period of time” through a pilot insurance programme which has been rolled out.
A new investigation shows that drought conditions in Texas triggered more federal crop insurance payments to farmers than any other reason and made up an astounding 43 percent of all crop insurance payments in the state between 2001 and 2022. And Texas received by far the most drought payments out of all states – over $3 billion more than the next most expensive state, Kansas.
Sri Lanks agricultural sector, the backbone of the nation’s economy and food supply, faces unprecedented risks due to climate change and unpredictable policy shifts, such as the abrupt push for organic agriculture, which led to a national crisis.In recent years, Sri Lanka agricultural sector has suffered heavily from natural disasters and ill-advised policy changes.
Agra Asigurări, the national leader in agricultural insurance, announces record numbers regarding damage claims for the agricultural year 2023-2024. In total, over 2400 damages have been reported due to the recent extreme meteorological phenomena Romania has faced.
Farmers have expressed disappointment over the lack of transparency in the sanction of compensation under the crop insurance scheme.A list for the 2024 crop insurance payouts was recently released, but only 68 villages out of 277 in the district were included, and of those, compensation was provided to just 16 villages. He alleged significant irregularities in the distribution of crop insurance compensation.
Agricultural insurance will gradually play an important role in Vietnam in which more than 60% of the population live in rural areas and are largely dependent on agricultural production.However, currently, insurers are hesitant about offeringagricultural insuranceeven though the state has a subsidy scheme for agricultural insurance premiums. The subsidies range from 20% to 100% of the premiums, depending on the participants (poor, near-poor, and ordinary farmers).
Crop insurance is one of the most important protections against climate-related risks for farmers. Despite being heavily subsidized, insurance take-up in France remains surprisingly low.The penetration rate of crop insurance is low in France. Only 13.3% of farms were insured in 2020, and the numbers are stable, perhaps in slight increase, from 12% in 2016.
Record rainfall in May 2024 in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil’s southernmost state, has caused destructive flooding that is wreaking havoc on the country’s agricultural and livestock sectors. The flooding demolished food storage, stalled harvests, and damaged soils. Destroyed or obstructed infrastructure is also limiting food transportation and farm operations.
Despite natural and human-induced vulnerabilities posing challenges to food security, livestock and crop insurance in Pakistan is almost nonexistent. Out of a total of Rs553 billion gross premiums for the year 2022, the agriculture insurance premiums account for just Rs2.8bn.
The total insured value of state-supported agricultural insurance increased by 115.5% in 2023 when compared to a year earlier to TL 638,3 billion ($19.5 billion). The total state support premium amount in the agricultural sector increased by 91.7% yearly to TL 9.24 billion
As of 2022, the number of farming households covered by agricultural insurance has grown to approximately 550,000, a significant increase from the only 64,000 households that were covered in 2010
The district administration has urged the farmers in Villupuram to insure paddy crops under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (Prime Minister’s Crop Insurance Scheme) for 2024so that they can avail themselves of crop relief in case of loss due to natural calamities, pest attack or disease outbreak in the ongoing Samba season.
The uptake of the National Agriculture Insurance Scheme is performing poorly with less than 20 percent farmers subscribed within the determined insurance scope.Launched in 2019, the scheme was considered as a milestone for the country agriculture sector as it aims to cushionfarmers against losses stemming from disasterssuch as floods or drought.
After the devastating impacts of Typhoon Yagi, experts propose making agricultural insurance mandatory when obtaining bank loans, aiming to provide a lifeline to farmers facing catastrophic losses.