The government of the Russian Federation has submitted to the State Duma a bill that provides for a number of changes in the mechanism of state support in the field of agricultural insurance. The document was posted in the electronic database of the lower house of parliament.
The main change concerns the establishment of an unconditional deductible, the minimum size of which cannot be less than 10%, and an increase in the size of the maximum deductible from 30% to 50% of the insured amount for each crop, group of perennial plantings.
According to the authors of the bill, this innovation will increase the interest of insurance companies in agricultural insurance in areas of risky farming and will lead to the emergence of a cheaper insurance product.
“This will allow the majority of agricultural producers, who experience financial difficulties when concluding insurance contracts during sowing campaigns, to conclude insurance contracts for the risk of catastrophic loss (destruction) of crops and perennial plantations without special financial costs,” says the explanatory note to the document.
The bill also proposes to exclude the size of the threshold for loss (destruction) of crops and plantings. According to the current legislation, crop loss is defined as a decrease in the actual crop by 20% or more compared to the planned level. Loss of plantings of perennial plantings is defined as the loss of viability by perennial plantations of more than 30% of the planting area of land plots.
The explanatory note specifies that the exclusion of the size of the loss threshold will not lead to the need to increase the budgetary funds necessary to subsidize the concluded agricultural insurance contracts, since at the same time it will be a prerequisite to establish an unconditional deductible, the minimum amount of which cannot be less than 10% of the insured amount.
Another amendment will allow agricultural producers to receive insurance compensation in the event of the forced slaughter of insured animals, the fact of which infectious diseases have not been established. Insurance indemnities can be obtained if the slaughter was carried out in accordance with the veterinary legislation of the Russian Federation and is aimed at preventing the spread of infectious diseases included in a special list.
It is also proposed to establish in the contract the amount of the insured amount of at least 70% (instead of the current at least 80%) of the insured value of the crop of agricultural crops, planting of perennial plantations, farm animals.
"This will reduce the amount of insurance premiums and, accordingly, the financial burden on agricultural producers during sowing campaigns," reads the explanatory note.
In addition, the bill proposes to allow the use of photographic and video recording materials obtained in the course of Earth remote sensing (ERS) to obtain objective data on the facts of crop failure. “The use of aeronautical and space monitoring data makes it possible to establish the influence of insurance events on crops, the fact of the presence / absence of an insured event, which will contribute to strengthening mutual trust between the insurer and the insured,” the authors of the bill believe. The law is scheduled to enter into force on January 1, 2019.
Source: https://agrovesti.net