The Official Gazette of Aragon (BOA) of this Friday, October 1, has published the call for subsidies to the cost of contracting agricultural insurance for the year 2021. In total, 8.3 million euros of own funds have been summoned from the Government of Aragon, which are added to the amount of aid provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, through the State Agricultural Insurance Company (ENESA), which amounts to 23.2 million euros.
In this way, public support for the contracting of agricultural insurance amounts to 31.5 million euros, with an average intensity of support of 40 percent and that, in the case of young farmers in their first five years after their installation, it rises to 65 percent, which is the maximum allowed by the European Union, the regional executive has informed in a press release.
The new call will improve the support from the Government of Aragon to priority farms, those of greater professionalism, also to fruit and herbaceous crops and in a special way, to fighting livestock and extensive cattle and sheep.
In the latter case, that of livestock, in coordination with the different actions provided for in order AGM / 652/2021, of May 26, which calls for subsidies for the adaptation of extensive livestock to environmental challenges and socio-territorial challenges for the year 2021.
The insurance includes as basic coverage the death or necessary sacrifice of the animal as a result of accidents of any kind, including the attack of wild animals or feral dogs, coverage to which farmers can add additional guarantees for other risks, such as compulsory slaughter for livestock sanitation in some diseases, or even the deprivation of access to pasture due to immobilization of the farm due to brucellosis.
The Department of Agriculture, Livestock and the Environment considers agricultural insurance an essential tool for the agricultural sector, this line of benefits being the most relevant in terms of contribution of the Autonomous Community’s own funds in the entire agricultural field.
73% insured
The total cost of contracting the different agricultural insurance policies in Aragon has amounted to 76 million euros this season. As insurance lines with the greatest economic impact, fruit production, extensive herbaceous crops and the removal and destruction of animal carcasses stand out, which respectively absorb 37 percent, 12 percent and 30 percent of the assigned subsidy.
The insured capital for the value of the productions in 2020, amounted to 1,276 million euros –984 in the part of crops and 291 in livestock -, corresponding to 888,800 hectares and more than 50 million animals.
These data indicate that, in the case of agricultural productions, whose Final Production value, according to the Agrarian Macromagnitudes amounts to 1,347.5 million euros, 73 percent of the production value is insured, something that evidence that the sector assumes the cost of agricultural insurance as one more input of production.
109,000 hectares affected
In 2020, the accumulated claims affected more than 109,000 hectares, distributed in all the Aragonese regions. The most relevant have been hail, with some 78,000 hectares; hunting fauna, with damage to 9,060 hectares; and wind damage, which affected 4,300 hectares of land.
The crops with the greatest damage were extensive herbaceous, with 88,000 hectares affected; fruit trees, with 7,800; and the cherry, with 3,500. Thus, the payments received by farmers and ranchers as compensation amounted to 55.8 million euros. Of these, 11.5 correspond to the corpse removal and destruction line, 22 million to fruit trees, 8 to extensive herbaceous and 7.8 to cherry.
