On the Pilot Agriculture Insurance Program in Zhejiang Province

Zhejiang Province of China suffers heavy economic loss in agriculture due to frequent disastrous events. In 2006, the provincial and local governments in Zhejiang Province initiated a pilot agriculture insurance program with the touching-stones-to-cross-the-river philosophy. The practical strategy was successful in the past several years, whilst the determination of regional insurance rates was lack of sound risk assessment and validation. In this study, the hazard types, premium structure and premium rate are analyzed with more than 18,000 records of claim data of 2008. Detailed crop risk mapping with insurance data as validation will be helpful to the adjustment of insurance rate in the future. It was found that natural disasters, especially hydro-meteorological disasters were the main causes of agricultural loss in Zhejiang. Farmers in the developed coastal regions of Zhejiang were more willing to buy crop insurance and their insurance loss was higher because of more exposed to tropical cyclones and rainstorms.