Changes in agricultural zoning and meteorological service direction will reinforce rural insurance

Ongoing changes, such as the improvement of agricultural zoning and the targeting of meteorological services towards agricultural activity, are part of the restructuring of rural insurance, which should have its value increased in this year's Harvest Plan to serve a greater number of producers. “We are focusing our energy on agricultural policy, modernizing zoning and introducing new production models. Today, people rotate different crops to try to adapt or become more resilient to climate change. And this has to be incorporated into the zoning, because it directly impacts insurance. And this all comes from the source of meteorology”, declared the Secretary of Agricultural Policy at the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, Eduardo Sampaio.

The secretary participated this Monday (25) at the National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet) in a seminar, which marked World Meteorological Day, which took place on Saturday (23). Sampaio highlighted the importance of intensifying the use of climate information from Inmet to facilitate the work of farmers and to define sector policies.
“There is a consensus among us all, at a technical and political level, that we have to reinforce rural insurance and this cannot be done without reinforcing the basis of agricultural climate risk zoning”, he assessed.

Agricultural zoning allows rural producers to identify the best period for planting crops in different types of soil to avoid risks of losses related to adverse weather phenomena. “In a scenario of climate change, the government needs to make decisions based on reliable scientific information, which impacts the design of public policies,” stated the secretary.

Balance between production and protection

Mapa's Assistant Secretary for Innovation, Rural Development and Irrigation, Pedro Correa Neto, who participated in the event at Inmet, recalled the human responsibility in monitoring and adapting to climate change. “Our fight is daily so that Brazilian production is recognized as sustainable, adopting the best agricultural practices that contemplate the balance between production and protection”.

The director of Inmet, Francisco Diniz, who represents the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Brazil, warned of the increase in the frequency of extreme weather situations in the world. “If we take the last 30 years, there has been an increase in extreme events on Earth, going from something like 300 per year to 600 per year. A very significant increase.”

Representatives from the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), the climate monitoring services of the Air Force, the Navy, the National Water Agency (Ana), as well as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Institute Inter-American Cooperation for Agriculture (IICA).

World Meteorology Day, celebrated on March 23, was established by the WMO to highlight daily weather forecasting and climate monitoring services. This year's theme is “The Sun, Earth and Time”, with the aim of highlighting the solar source of energy for life on earth and its influence on weather, ocean currents and the hydrological cycle.