István Nagy: You can join the agricultural crisis insurance system soon

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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 protection against 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 also recommended to mitigate these effects. István Nagy pointed out that although decisions related to farming continue to be made by producers, the Ministry of Agriculture is trying to mitigate farmers’ income fluctuations with as many tools as possible. The use of damage mitigation tools is voluntary, and every element of the agricultural damage mitigation system supports the protection of producers, he added.

According to the Minister, in addition to agricultural insurance and damage mitigation, it is also worth joining the crisis insurance system that provides additional security

This risk management tool has been in place since 2021 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 could cause a decrease in income for farmers – he said. István Nagy indicated that 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 amount of damage mitigation benefits in the agricultural damage mitigation procedure, based on the relevant legislation, as a producer with premium-based agricultural insurance. The minister highlighted that after joining, farmers must pay a very fair financial contribution to the Crisis Insurance Fund every year, while the farmer is obliged to provide data during the membership, which covers data on income and farm size. However, this data provision has now been significantly simplified, thus reducing the administrative burden on farmers, he added. The payment of compensation can also take place earlier than usual in previous years, and the level of compensation is also outstanding, since based on the experiences of recent years, the system was able to compensate up to 70 percent of the verified loss of farmer income, István Nagy detailed.

MTI