Dorota Niedziela and Kazimierz Plocke, Members of Parliament, once again (last time at the end of previous year) enquired the Minister of Agriculture about the progress of the development of the mutual insurance system (agricultural guarantee fund), which was publicly promised by Mr. Henryk Kowalczyk, Deputy Prime Minister, in January 2022, how the Minister assesses the course of last year’s insurance campaign and how many crops and livestock were insured in 2022 with the use of a subsidy from state funds in the amount of PLN 4.5 billion allocated for that purpose.
The situation with insurance has somewhat improved.
“In 2022, 219,677 agricultural producers concluded insurance contracts for agricultural crops or livestock with a subsidy from the state budget (i.e. 31,246 more than in 2021). The concluded contracts ensured insurance cover for crops from an area of 4,072,000.56 hectares of land and protection against losses in breeding or keeping of 22,535,500 livestock units,” replied Ryszard Bartosik, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
He added that in 2022, the amount of PLN 760,139 thousand was utilized as state-budget subsidies for insurance premiums for agricultural crops and livestock.
Let’s add that is was only PLN 760,139 thousand out of the planned PLN 4.5 billion.
This shows that the situation with agricultural insurance is slightly better than indicated by the data for the first three quarters of 2022. Farmers are slowly beginning to appreciate this form of protecting their work.
Mr. Bartosik is also pleased, writing in response to a parliamentary question: “I favorably assess the outcomes of last year’s insurance campaign. The goal of insuring 30% of the crop area assumed for 2022 was achieved.”
What about the mutual insurance system?
Answering this question, Ryszard Bartosik pointed out that the following solutions were introduced as part of the measures to improve the functioning of the crop and livestock insurance system:
- Based on the Regulation of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of March 31, 2022 on the detailed conditions and procedure for granting, payment and reimbursement of financial aid under the “Risk Management” measure covered by the Rural Development Program for 2014-2020 (Journal of Laws item 785) producers of poultry, cattle and pigs may apply to the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture (ARMA) for reimbursement of 70% of the costs of purchasing insurance against the risk of losses caused by salmonellosis;
- A mechanism for the assignment of receivables for the purchase of insurance policies by agricultural producers was introduced, enabling the payment of these receivables to the insurance company by ARMA from direct payments.
“In addition, in 2023, the maximum insurance sums for individual crops and livestock were increased compared to those applicable in 2022. The introduced changes resulted from an increase in yields and market prices of individual agricultural crops or livestock,” added Deputy Minister.
He also reminded that the draft act on the Agriculture Protection Fund was sent for inter-ministerial arrangements and public consultations, with the deadline for submitting comments until March 9, 2023.
Agricultural Guarantee Fund
Responding to the question of the Members of Parliament about the Agricultural Guarantee Fund, Ryszard Bartosik informed that a reserve in the amount of PLN 3,000,000 thousand provided for in part 83 – Special purpose reserves under item 62 “Agricultural Guarantee Fund” of the Budget Act planned for the year 2022 was – in accordance with the justification for this reserve – intended for the implementation by ARMA of assistance in connection with the occurrence of damage in farms and special departments caused by unfavourable atmospheric phenomena, including drought, hail, torrential rain, negative effects of overwintering, spring frosts, flood, hurricane, lightning, landslide or avalanche within the meaning of the provisions on insurance of agricultural crops and livestock.
“Unutilized amounts of expenses provided for in the Budget Act for a given year, including those planned as special purpose reserves, expire at the end of the given budget year. An exception to this rule are expenses specified in the list established by the Council of Ministers by way of a regulation, after obtaining an opinion of the parliamentary committee responsible for budget matters. In 2022, a list of non-expiring expenses was not established,” explained Deputy Minister of Agriculture.
