Payouts to crop insurers increased 2.9 times - amounting to 2.1 billion rubles - over the year.

Starting from the beginning of the current year, payments to agro insurers for all types of government-supported insurance have increased by 2.9 times compared to the previous year, reaching a total of 2.1 billion rubles. This was reported by Korney Bizhdov, President of the National Union of Agro Insurers (NSA), at the summer conference "Where is the Margin 2024" organized by the Institute for Agrarian Market Conjuncture. In particular, payments related to May frosts under crop risk insurance programs reached 1.1 billion rubles.

Bizhdov noted that the current year is unique in terms of the geographical coverage of such particularly dangerous phenomena for crop growers as May frosts. For this reason, 11 regions have declared a state of emergency. The emergency insurance program, actively implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and agro insurers, has demonstrated its effectiveness and significance, emphasized Bizhdov. The largest payments for emergency insurance this year were received by agrarians in the Volgograd region - 610 million rubles, the Tambov region - 174 million rubles, and the Belgorod region - 126 million rubles.

Bizhdov also emphasized that despite doubts and mockery, the emergency insurance program is working. For example, over the years 2021-2022, crop growers in the Stavropol region received over 2 billion rubles, while agricultural producers in the Primorsky region received 274 million rubles last year. The advantages of this program include its lower cost for agrarians compared to other types of insurance, as well as the minimal amount of necessary documents required to receive payments. It is worth noting that this program only compensates for direct costs related to seeds, fertilizers, and equipment.

However, there are areas of concern that should be taken into account in future periods. The main lesson, according to the head of NSA, is the necessity of establishing cooperation between all participants in the process in the event of large-scale emergencies. It is important to ensure the exchange of information and documentation on losses between the agrarian, regional agricultural bodies, the National Union of Agro Insurers, insurance companies, and the Ministry of Agriculture. Thanks to the experience accumulated in practice, this model will be approved in the near future, added Bizhdov.

In turn, the Ministry of Agriculture has put forward several proposals to improve agro insurance with government support. Among them is an initiative to reduce the maximum deductible threshold for crop multi-risk insurance contracts, the issue of recognizing conclusions from private meteorological stations for agro insurance, simplifying the document flow system between insurers and agrarians for crop insurance, as well as addressing compensation issues in the event of animal seizure during the occurrence of infectious epidemics. This was discussed by the First Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Elena Fastova, during the conference.

It is important for the Ministry of Agriculture to improve the quality of crop insurance, as certain regions are technically included in agro insurance. The formalism lies in the fact that agrarians use the maximum deductible level of 50%, established by legislation, to reduce the cost of the insurance policy under the multi-risk insurance program with government support. As a result, when an insurable event occurs, the enterprise remains without insurance compensation.

"The main task is to reduce the deductible threshold to 30% in order to increase the quality and volume of payments under crop insurance contracts," noted Fastova.