Page 21 - 2018 Annual Report Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan

Annual Report 2018 Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan farmers and fishermen to get the money they needed to pay insurance premiums. These measures raised the willingness of farmers and fishermen to take out insurance. From 2015 through 2018, a total of 17,112 insurance policies had been taken out, the total insured amount was NT$3.387 billion, the total insured land area was 28,268 hectares, and insurance was taken out on 71,000 poultry birds. The effectiveness of insurance has increased year by year, and in 2019 the COA plans to offer insurance for pineapples, bananas, and wendan pomelos, to expand the scope of insurance protection. The situation with regard to pilot agricultural insurance over the years has been as follows: To ensure the safety of assets of fishermen operating at sea, the COA arranged subsidies for fishing boat insurance for 7,526 fishing boats (rafts) in 2018, with subsidies totaling NT$50.07 million. In order to spread operational risk and prevent the illegal circulation of dead livestock, the COA offers livestock insurance that includes coverage for dairy cow deaths, hog deaths, and hog deaths during transport. Of these, hog death insurance has been expanded to cover the entire country (including offshore islands). There were 8,434,404 insured livestock animals in 2018, including 32,000 dairy cows and 8,402,404 hogs. There is a high degree of complexity and difficulty in implementing agricultural insurance. Based on the experiences of various countries that have developed agricultural insurance, the government needs to pass a special law to support its development in Taiwan. Through the process of trial implementation, the COA has gained practical experience, and plans to nalize a special draft law for agricultural insurance as quickly as possible. This will enable farmers and fishermen to clearly understand the main direction of government policy. The COA must ensure the availability of policy resources and tools, and, through the agricultural insurance system, ensure sustainable operations and expand participation. We must also construct an operating model Year 2015 2017 total 17,112 338,652 - - - 28,268 71 Number of policies Insured amount (xNT$10,000) 1,313 Area covered (hectares) 51 Number of poultry birds insured (x10,000) 89 2016 175 3,247 144 4,898 71,345 8,120 2018 11,950 262,747 19,953 71 19