You can join the agricultural crisis insurance system soon

In order to mitigate producer risks, it is worth joining the agricultural crisis insurance system, which is unique at the EU level, which farmers have the opportunity to do this year between February 1 and February 28, announced István Nagy, Minister of Agriculture, on his social media page. The Minister emphasized that in the last farming year, the livestock sector was hit by the foot-and-mouth disease epidemic in early spring, as well as the additional costs of combating African swine fever, fruit and grape growers faced severe spring frost damage, while arable crop growers suffered significant drought damage in many regions of the country. Among other things, market disruptions resulting from these phenomena also occurred in the affected sectors, and joining the system is particularly recommended to mitigate the effects. Although decisions related to farming continue to be made by producers, the Ministry of Agriculture is trying to mitigate farmers’ income volatility with as many tools as possible. The use of damage mitigation tools is voluntary, and all elements of the agricultural damage mitigation system support the protection of producers. In addition to agricultural insurance and damage mitigation, it is also worth joining the crisis insurance system, which provides additional security. Since 2021, this risk management tool has been used to effectively manage all risk factors in addition to weather risks – be it the outbreak of animal or plant diseases, increased production costs, a decrease in market prices or even market loss – that can cause a decrease in income for farmers.

By joining the system, the establishment of a membership relationship means a 3-year commitment for the farmer

A farmer with an active producer membership is entitled to the same level of damage mitigation benefits in the agricultural damage mitigation procedure as a farmer with premium-based agricultural insurance, based on the relevant legislation. After joining, farmers must pay a very fair financial contribution to the Crisis Insurance Fund every year. The farmer is obliged to provide data during the membership period, which includes data on income and farm size. However, this data provision has now been significantly simplified, thus reducing the administrative burden on farmers. The compensation can be paid earlier than usual in previous years, and the level of compensation is also outstanding, since based on the experience of recent years, the system was able to compensate up to 70 percent of the farmer’s income that was proven to be lost – detailed István Nagy.

AM