The Agricultural Organization considers it necessary to adapt the agricultural insurance lines to the new climatic conditions.

 

The Agrarian Association of Young Farmers (Asaja) Castilla-La Mancha has written to Agroseguro and the State Agricultural Insurance Entity (Enesa) requesting a meeting in order to address the inclusion of heat stroke as the main risk when hiring wine grape insurance.

The organization assures that high temperatures have affected the normal vegetative cycle of the plant, producing a severe water stress that will result in a reduction in production.

It is considered that a temperature above 35 degrees already affects the normal development of the plant and, this year, due to continuous heat waves are many agricultural counties that have been included in yellow level, and even orange, by maximum temperatures, reported Asaja in a press release.

These continuous heat waves have affected the ripening of the fruit, influencing the early stages of flowering of the plant which will be reflected not only in a decrease in production but in a decrease in the graduation of the grape, they explain.

Currently, Asaja points out that the wine grape insurance covers damages in production by frost, wilt, pedrisco or exceptional risks, such as wildlife, fires, flooding or torrential rain.

In addition to the adverse weather conditions, the losses caused by adverse climatic conditions not included in the definitions of the risks described above which cannot be controlled by the farmer are considered to be covered by this definition, can be ascertained both on the insured holding and in the area where it is located, including the effect of heat stroke.

EACH RISK, DIFFERENTIATED TREATMENT

The problem that moves the Agrarian organization is that each insured risk has a differentiated treatment, when fixing the minimum insurable damage or the maximum coverage.

In the case of losses due to climatic adversities (heat stroke) a franchise of 30 per cent and a maximum coverage of 60 per cent of the holding is established.

However, in the case of frost, the minimum compensable damage is 10 per cent and the maximum coverage 80 per cent of the holding.

That is why the organization considers it necessary to review the wine grape insurance, adapting it to the needs of the vineyards so that, if something happens, farmers are covered and, according to all forecasts, heat waves will happen year after year.

In this sense, Asaja considers that heat stroke risk is more a reality than an exceptional fact, which is why it asks insurance companies to treat it with the necessary rigour, in order to ensure the minimum economic viability of farms in years like this.

In the context of this review, it considers that the size of the damaged area should be reduced, at plot level and not at farm level, as it is now, since, under the current conditions of insurance, It is very difficult for a farmer to claim compensation for heatstroke by having to prove that the whole farm is damaged and the damage is widespread in the area.

The organization understands that this update that demands should not involve an increase in the price of insurance but adapt it to real needs since, currently, insure damages, such as frost, for which, barely parts are given and, However, they are included in the insurance price.

Asaja de Castilla-La Mancha has warned that he will direct all his efforts to make both Enesa and Agroseguro understand this new reality, adapting the lines of agricultural insurance to the new climatic conditions imposed by climate change, the insurance budget, borne by farmers and the Administration, must be used to cover real risks which cause major crop losses.

The insurance contract in Castilla-La Mancha is around 185,000 hectares insured, with an increase in guaranteed production.

The implementation of insurance in Castilla-La Mancha is currently 41% in area, with Ciudad Real being the province with the highest implantation rate, with 50.5%.

 

SOURCE: CLM24.ES