The meeting of the Interdepartmental Working Group on issues related to the expansion of the network of weather stations for agricultural insurance purposes was chaired by Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Elena Fastova. The group, created by order of the Russian Ministry of Agriculture, also included representatives of Roshydromet, the Ministry of Digital Value and the National Union of Agricultural Insurers (NUA). Consideration of the problem and the search for solutions were initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia after appeals from the regions of the Russian Federation at the end of last year.
“Involvement in the agricultural insurance system of all agricultural regions, which occurred after 2019, actualized the acute problem of the lack of local weather stations in most subjects of the Russian Federation. This topic is regularly raised at the regional meetings and seminars of the NSA on agricultural insurance, - comments the President of the NSA Korney Bizhdov. - The official conclusion of the structures of Roshydromet is necessary to confirm insured events, namely, that specific hazardous natural phenomena occurred in the territory where the affected crops were located. There are regions that are ready to finance the acquisition and maintenance of new weather stations from their budgets, but in order for their data to be officially recognized, certification of these stations, their licensing and maintenance within the network are necessary. Now, thanks to the position of the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia, the discussion of this problem and possible ways to solve it has moved into a practical plane. It should be noted that high-quality meteorological data are necessary not only for servicing specific insurance contracts, but also for broader tasks of analyzing and predicting the risks and opportunities of agriculture - not only those that the agricultural insurance system faces, but also important for agricultural production in general when ensuring policy food security of the country.