The Launching Meeting and First International Workshop on DelPHE ACIC Project Convened in Beijing
Oct.22,2007 / Beijing
The Launching Meeting and First International Workshop on DelPHE Project "The Application of Crop Insurance to Alleviate Poverty and Promote Sustainable Agricultural Production in the Chinese Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang"supported by U.K. Department for International Development (DFID) was convened in Beijing on Oct.22, 2007.
The leader partner of the project is Agricultural Information Institute (AII) of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science (CAAS), and the other partners are University of Manitoba in Canada, Capital University of Economics and Business in China, University of Nottingham In U.K., Purdue University in U.S., and Inner Mongolia Agricultural University in China. This project seeks to develop improved policies and programs for managing risk in farming, through introducing and assisting in implementing crop insurance in China’s Western rural areas, the Autonomous of Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang. The project will build the capacity of policy-makers, researchers, and farmers to optimize crop risk management, in line with the national policy of increasing farmers’ income and stabilizing agricultural production.
More than 50 people attended the meeting, including directors from the Ministry of Agriculture of China, Department of International Cooperation of CAAS, AII of CAAS, coordinators of the project and researchers and graduates of CAAS. The meeting was hosted by Xianxue Meng, the Vice General Director of AII.
On the launching meeting, Prof. Qiao Zhang, who is the first coordinator, introduced the implementation scheme of the project. Zhongwei Liu, the Chief of the Europe office of International Cooperation Bureau of Ministry of Agriculture of China, Daguang Lu, the Deputy Director General of Department of International Cooperation of CAAS, and Shiwei Xu, the General Director of AII addressed to celebrate the start-up of the project. They all thought it is very important both on theory and practical applications, and they would provide most support for the project.
In the following workshop, Prof. Milton Boyd from University of Manitoba, Prof. Guozhu Tuo from Capital University of Economics and Business, and Prof. Qiao Zhang from AII gave their academic presentation in turn.
Prof. Milton Boyd presented Canada’s Experience with Crop Insurance and Implications for China, he introduced the role of government in agricultural stabilization and crop insurance, mostly by Canadian experience. He pointed out that government subsidy is needed for crop insurance success, and the only crop insurance in North America that has been successful is crop insurance that has received government support/subsidy to help farmer pay the premiums. He also introduced Canadian Government Policy for farmers, such as government supports farmer with farm income stabilization fund and government crop insurance program. Some considerations and implications for China when starting a crop insurance program were put forward.
In the presentation of The Step of Agricultural Insurance of China--History, Environment and experience, Prof. Guozhu Tuo firstly introduced the history of agricultural insurance in China since 1982 and the main experience. He pointed out that 26 years of pilots and studies have made good foundation for the advancing of policy agricultural insurance. Then Prof. Tuo introduced the macro-circumstances for the development of agricultural insurance in China. It was thought that the experiments of policy agricultural insurance have been in the right path from 2007 and many pilots were carried out in parts of China. Also he introduced the patterns and characteristics of the main pilots in Shanghai, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Beijing, Huaian and Suzhou in details.
Prof. Qiao Zhang presented the integrated risk management system of agriculture in China. In the first part of agricultural risk analysis, he introduced the current progress in agricultural risk classification and agricultural risk feature, and he explained how to analyze agricultural risk by an example of corn yield risk analysis in China. In the second part of agricultural risk management, he introduced the objectives and essentials of agricultural risk management, and introduced various agricultural risk management tools such as agricultural insurance, future market, contract farming, and catastrophic risk securities in details. At last, the system of integrated agricultural risk management in China was put forward.
All the attendees were interested in the workshop presentation, and such questions as the differences in agricultural insurance between China and Canada, and how to advance policy agricultural insurance in China were discussed deeply.
At last, Prof. Xianxue Meng summarized the lunching meeting and workshop, and put forward some advices on the implementation of the program
