Meteorological index insurance guarantees Guiyang's tea industry

The tea meteorological index insurance launched by the city of Guiyang in Southwest China's Guizhou province has played an essential role in guaranteeing the development of the local tea industry.

In June 2021, the Guiyang Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the Guiyang branch of China Pacific Property Insurance signed the "Strategic Cooperation Agreement for Insurance Serves Rural Revitalization".

The two parties established a cooperation mechanism to achieve new breakthroughs in agricultural insurance product innovation. The tea meteorological index insurance is one of the insurance products.

According to the agreement, the Guiyang branch will use the meteorological station data, remote sensing data and spring tea germination and picking frequency data on each tea garden to establish a model platform in an effort to assist in handling tea meteorological index insurance claims and other matters.

Under the tea meteorological index insurance policy, the compensation starting point is lower than 2 C, and the 8th day is the settlement cycle of the claim. The corresponding compensation amount is set according to different temperature thresholds.

Insurance coverage is 1,200 yuan ($180.05) per mu of tea gardens. Agricultural operators only need to pay 28.8 yuan per mu, and the rest will be subsidized by financial subsidies at all levels.

When the temperature issued by the Guizhou Provincial Meteorological Bureau is lower than the temperature stipulated in the insurance contract, it is regarded as an insurance accident.

The insured tea enterprises and cooperatives can check the temperature of their insured tea and the corresponding indemnity through WeChat.

It is no longer necessary to determine the actual loss through manual inspection as the basis for claim settlement. The new policy simplifies the claim compensation settlement process, reduces the redemption link, and realizes the transparency of the compensation process and results, according to Luo Bin, director of the policy and reform division of the Guiyang Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

In the first year after it came into effect, only tea gardens in Guiyang's Kaiyang county were eligible to benefit from the policy.

However, in 2022, it was expanded to include tea gardens in the city's Wudang district, bringing the total number of insured tea enterprises and cooperatives to 22.