Wider cover promises food security

China will intensify efforts to implement the full-cost insurance for rice, wheat and corn, and planting income insurance nationwide, to benefit farmers and improve agricultural security, government officials said on Friday at a media conference in Beijing.

Full-cost insurance for the three primary food crops — rice, wheat and corn — is an agricultural insurance policy that encompasses all production costs, including expenses related to materials, land and labor.

Planting income insurance is designed to reflect the value of agricultural products based on their market prices and yields, thereby insuring the income derived from cultivating these crops.

Liao Min, vice-minister of finance, said the country will further utilize experiences related to those insurance policies accumulated in the past. It will also strengthen coordination of different government departments and improve services at grassroots level to better implement those policies nationwide. The country will intensify supervision and increase fiscal support in this regard, he said.

"The coverage expansion of the two insurance programs nationwide marks an important milestone in the development of China's agricultural insurance sector and will help stabilize incomes of rural households and secure food security," Liao said. "We will make joint efforts to ensure the insurance policies will be thoroughly implemented."

Liao further said an initial analysis of the major grain-producing counties where the insurance programs were implemented has been completed. The areas have seen an average increase of 48 percent in the security level for the three main staples in the past three years.

The Finance Ministry launched an agricultural insurance premium subsidy policy in 2007. It has so far provided more than 300 billion yuan ($41.4 billion) in such subsidies, with an average annual growth rate of 22 percent. This year, China has set aside a budget of more than 20 billion yuan for supporting the rice, wheat and corn insurance programs, Liao said.

Such subsidies are fully in line with the rules of the World Trade Organization, and China's practices can prove a valuable reference in the formation of international rules, he said.

Yin Jiang'ao, director of the Property and Casualty Insurance Supervision Department at the National Financial Regulatory Administration, said China has made significant achievements in developing agricultural insurance, but there still exists room for improvement, in terms of expanding insurance coverage and raising food security level.

Yin said China will strive to make the pricing of agricultural insurance more scientific and accurate, and promote the standardized development of the insurance products. Efforts will be made to launch online insurance services, thus lowering the operating costs and improving customer experience.

From January to April, insurers paid out 29.4 billion yuan in agricultural insurance compensation, up 8 percent year-on-year, benefiting 8.13 million rural households.

Contact the writers at liuzhihua@chinadaily.com.cn