Agricultural income cover sees gain

With natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic affecting business significantly, many farmers in the Tohoku region of Japan are hedging against risk by opting to purchase farmers income insurance, which makes up for losses to their earnings.

The insurance covers nearly all agricultural products as well as losses resulting from a wide range of circumstances such as lower yields due to typhoons and heavy rain, falling market prices, bankruptcy of business partners and the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The prefectural governments and agricultural cooperatives of Akita, Aomori, Miyagi, Iwate, Fukushima and Yamagata are encouraging farmers to purchase the insurance policy.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the number of purchased insurance policies as of May 2021 stood at 13,732, while the total amount of insurance premiums paid in the six prefectures totaled JPY2.49 billion in 2020, about 1.5 times higher than in the previous year for both figures.

“The subscription rate is relatively high in and around the city of Hirosaki, which is known for apple production,” said an official with an agricultural insurance association in Aomori Prefecture, which has the largest number of subscribers in the region, according to a Japan Times report.