The impact of the tropical depression causing heavy rains at the end of September has caused many farmers and cooperatives to suffer losses due to damaged agricultural products. In Thai Binh, heavy rains caused about 11,000 hectares of winter-spring rice to tilt (equivalent to nearly 15% of the total rice area) and about 6,700 hectares of vegetables to be affected.
Mr. Ngo Van Khoi, Director of Thai Xuyen Cooperative (Thai Thuy District, Thai Binh Province) said that due to heavy rain, depending on each field, the cooperative's rice fields were flooded from 30-70% of the stalks. Some areas were even knocked over and collapsed.
At Vinh Xuan Agricultural Service and General Cooperative (Nghe An), due to growing vegetables, when there was heavy rain, causing flooding, the vegetable area was crushed, waterlogged, and damaged up to about 9/12 hectares. This means that about 70% of the income of the people and members of the cooperative was swept away by the rain.
Agricultural cooperatives face many risks but have not yet accessed insurance policies. (Illustration photo).
According to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, every year, floods, droughts, etc. will wash away the achievements of farmers and cooperatives, with assets worth at least 1.5% of GDP. Therefore, they need a guarantee for their labor achievements, so agricultural insurance is also considered an effective solution by the relevant agencies.
However, as direct agricultural producers, many farmers and cooperatives still have concerns about agricultural insurance.
Mr. Truong Huu Tan, Director of Kim Thanh Agricultural Cooperative (Thua Thien Hue) said that the State has paid attention to and proposed agricultural insurance policies, but the coverage is not high.
Even though Thua Thien Hue is one of the localities where agricultural production is heavily affected by natural disasters and weather, the agricultural insurance policy for plants and animals does not mention this province. Therefore, people, even though they really want to participate in agricultural insurance, cannot access it.
According to Mr. Nguyen Van Hoc, Director of Van Hoc General Livestock Cooperative (Binh Dinh), many people and members have developed buffalo, cow, and pig farming and want to participate in agricultural insurance, but when they learn, they find that the agricultural insurance program according to Decision No. 13/QD-TTg only focuses on diseases such as blue ear disease, anthrax, foot-and-mouth disease, etc.
These are diseases that have been controlled quite well. However, recently there has been widespread African swine fever or lumpy skin disease in cattle, but the policy does not mention this disease.
“If the agricultural insurance regulations include African swine fever or lumpy skin disease, many farmers and cooperative members will participate, because this disease is currently spreading not only in Binh Dinh but also in many provinces and cities across the country, causing serious damage,” Mr. Hoc shared.
It can be seen that the agricultural insurance policy still has certain gaps that limit the participation of farmers and cooperative members. For example, the localities that benefit from the new policy are only limited to 28 provinces and cities. The epidemics are not comprehensive and are only in the form of a pilot, so they are not highly effective, do not guarantee and meet the needs of participants.
Workers of An Phat Cooperative (Thanh Tri, Hanoi) prepare and process vegetables.
Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Dinh, former lecturer of the Insurance Faculty, National Economics University, said that the current policy framework has not yet brought convenience to people and cooperatives when participating in insurance. Specifically, many households and cooperatives have encountered difficulties in developing livestock and commodity production due to legal regulations on land.
Therefore, they are forced to raise livestock according to natural grazing practices, but this does not meet the requirements of livestock insurance, especially in mountainous areas.
Or even the current insurance policy for aquaculture only focuses on natural disaster risks without paying attention to disease risks. While these are also major risks, causing damage to farmers and cooperatives when carrying out large-scale aquaculture.
In addition, one of the factors that makes agricultural insurance not develop strongly in Vietnam is that the income of farmers and cooperative members is still low and unstable, so the financial capacity to meet the needs of insurance contracts is still very limited.
Currently in Vietnam, natural disasters, storms and floods often occur frequently, so agricultural risks are large, leading to losses in income and property of farmers and cooperatives. This is associated with a decrease in income of people and cooperatives in the agricultural sector, leading to a lack of capital for reproduction and repayment of credit loans.
This cycle makes them fall into a vicious circle of difficulties, making it difficult for them to participate in insurance, especially since maintaining insurance premiums is not easy.
After all, agriculture is still a field with many potential risks, but to make preventive tools such as agricultural insurance have higher coverage, ministries and branches need to quickly come up with solutions to perfect mechanisms and policies to overcome difficulties and obstacles that people and cooperatives are facing.
For example, the policy of supporting agricultural insurance premiums up to 90% for poor households but only stopping at 20% for individuals and households that are not poor households is unreasonable. This does not really encourage large-scale commodity production households and other production organizations to develop agricultural economy and participate in agricultural insurance.
According to experts, without appropriate legal regulations, it is difficult to create trust for people and cooperatives. However, when the law is clear and people clearly see the benefits of agricultural insurance, they will proactively participate and raise awareness and responsibility in implementing insurance contracts.
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