The 2023 cereal campaign in Castilla y León will go down in history as one of the worst. Conditioned by drought and other inclement weather such as strong storms in some areas of the Community, it has left million-dollar losses for field professionals and, in turn, the highest compensation paid by agricultural insurance. An uncertainty about the climate that farmers face again this year, who, fearing a repeat of water shortages, have once again opted for insurance despite the increase in premiums. At the moment, according to the data provided by Agroseguro as of November 30, producers of dryland herbaceous crops, which include winter cereals, legumes and rapeseed, have already increased the number of policies subscribed at the same dates last year, which which demonstrates the consolidation of agricultural insurance in the Community, which “is not only consolidated”, but is growing.

For now, as confirmed to this newspaper by sources from the Spanish Group of Insurance Entities of Combined Agricultural Insurance (Agroseguro), insurance until November 30 reaches “very positive” figures. Although the contracting period ends on December 20, up to that date 15,132 policies have already been subscribed in the Community, 2.3 percent more than last year in the same period. The insured area has also increased by 3.9 percent with 1.19 million hectares insured, while production already reaches 3.34 million tons, which is 6.5 percent more than in the last campaign. on the same date.

An increase that has occurred despite the increase in the cost of insurance that field professionals have to face this year, as reported by agricultural organizations. According to Asaja, a “significant increase” of 35 percent on average has been applied to insurance rates for arable crops in Castilla y León, which has gone from 22 to 30 euros per hectare.

It must be taken into account that a part of these premiums are subsidized by the State Agrarian Insurance Entity (Enesa) and the autonomous communities. In the case of policies already subscribed until November 30 in herbaceous crops, according to Agroseguro, the average subsidy reaches 55 percent of the premium receipt, while the other 45 corresponds to the policyholder.

Implementation

If the insurance figures are compared to the total insured in the last campaign – until December 20 – in the autumn modules, which are the ones that include the most complete insurance, all the magnitudes are already above 60 percent. . That is to say, as Agroseguro stated, 60 percent of the total insured in modules 1 and 2 have already been insured in the last campaign, and in addition, “the insurance continues to grow in its implementation, which at the national level is located at the 70 percent, and in the case of Castilla y León it stood at 84 percent in the last campaign. “Therefore, the sector’s confidence in herbaceous insurance is not only consolidated, but is expanding,” added the same sources.

The 2023 campaign will be remembered as the one in which the largest compensations were paid for agricultural insurance both in our Community and at the national level. The losses in the herbaceous line rose to 189.3 million in Castilla y León, of which 99.5 percent have already been paid. In fact, as Agroseguro assured, compensation was paid very quickly: 21.8 days on average after the final assessment of the damages. In total, for all lines as a whole, compensation amounts to 231 million, of which, as of November 30, 225.8 million have already been paid. Those that are missing correspond to recent livestock incidents.