If legislative changes are not made, the insurance companies at a certain moment can stop insuring agricultural risks for natural disasters. Such concerns were formulated in public consultations on the draft bill on the insuring of production risks in agriculture and pisciculture that were held on a parliamentary platform, IPN reports.

Vitalie Banaru, director of an insurance company, said that laws are needed to facilitate the insuring of agricultural risks at a number of levels. Parliament last April adopted law No. 92, which makes the insuring of particular crops impossible. The farmers will not be able to benefit from subsidies as a result of frost, drought or hail.

“If the person insures the crops in November, but ascertains that the crops got fully frozen in January, we will not wait until after the harvest as we do not have what to wait. The farmer needs to sow the field and it is very hard to tell the farmer that they need to wait and at that moment you take money out and pay it to them,” said Călin Tomuleț, director of another insurance company.

The head of the Association “Force of Farmers” Alexandru Slusari noted that things worsen each year. “In 2023, the subsidization fund is by 250 million lei higher than last year. Respectively, taking away other costs, only 300 million lei remains. If the fund is not supplemented, there is a risk that many of the signed contracts will be paid in May-June 2024,” stated Alexandru Slusari.

PAS MP Iulia Dascălu said the farmers need companies that would insure their crop fields and the state and other stakeholders should find optimal solutions. “We need to develop the insurance market for everyone to be treated equally. I wonder what will happen in 2024 if the situation in 2023 is more difficult. There is a risk that the insurers will refuse to insure crops at a certain moment,” stated Iulia Dascălu.