Map updates booklet of rural insurance support programs

The arrival of the El Niño climate phenomenon in this second semester is a period marked by the presence of climate instability, which causes apprehension among farmers, with losses resulting from the failure of the agricultural harvest, and also for companies that operate rural insurance, due to record losses resulting from failures in recent harvests.

For this reason, the technical team from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Mapa) updated the Rural Insurance Support Programs (Federal, State and Municipal) booklet. The publication, which was launched in February last year, aims to encourage the participation of state and municipal Agriculture departments in adopting rural insurance as a mechanism that boosts the generation of wealth and economic, social and environmental development. (See link at the end of this article)

According to Mapa's Director of Risk Management, Jônatas Jovino Pulquério, “Rural Insurance is one of the main instruments for mitigating climate risks and protecting the income of rural producers and maintaining the activity." Insurance is an inducer of the use of technologies and is associated with Agricultural Climate Risk Zoning (Zarc), allowing its expansion across the country.

The director argues that state and municipal programs are important for promoting rural insurance because they make it possible to complement federal subsidy aid, with the producer having a smaller share in paying the premium, which makes it possible to take out the rural insurance policy.

The states of Paraná and São Paulo already have rural insurance incentive programs. Technicians from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock are in the negotiation phase with Rio Grande do Sul.

Rural Insurance Subsidy Program

The federal government, through the Rural Insurance Premium Subsidy Program (PSR), offers farmers the opportunity to insure their production at a reduced cost, through financial assistance from the Federal Government.

Serving the agricultural, livestock, forestry and aquaculture segments in more than 60 activities and crops, the PSR, in 2022, invested R$1,1 billion to serve more than 98 thousand producers. 125 thousand policies were contracted covering an area of ​​7,2 million hectares, with a total insured value of R$43 billion.

What is El Niño

The El Niño phenomenon results from the warming of the waters of the Pacific Ocean and lasts an average of 18 months. The impacts in Brazil are in periods of drought in the Northeast, mainly in the interior, which especially affects the corn and soy producing areas in the Matopiba region (interior of MA, TO, PI and BA), and more frequent rains, with the possibility of hail, in the Center-South, hitting soybean, coffee, wheat and sugarcane crops.

In turn, La Niña results in the cooling of Pacific waters, which generated severe cold in the states of the South and Southeast, with a greater incidence of frost in Rio Grande do Sul, and an increase in rain and winds in the Northeast throughout 2021 and 2022.

How to take out rural insurance

Producers interested in taking out rural insurance should look for a broker or financial institution that sells rural insurance policies. Currently, 17 insurance companies are authorized to operate in the PSR. Rural insurance is aimed at individual or legal producers, regardless of access to rural credit.

The economic subsidy granted by Mapa can be requested by any individual or legal entity that cultivates or produces species covered by the program.

For more information about PSR, download the app.

Since 2022, the premium subsidy percentage has been fixed at 40% for all crops/activities, except for soybeans, whose percentage is 20%. This rule applies to any type of product and coverage, according to PSR rules.

Technical support in case of doubts

If technical support is needed, the state and municipal departments of Agriculture can contact the Department of Risk Management (DEGER), of the Secretariat of Agricultural Policy (SPA) of Mapa, at the email addressseguro@agro.gov.br