- Subsidies for crop and livestock insurance paid by the Ministry of Agriculture increased from approximately PLN 100 million in 2018 to PLN 920 million from 2022.
- This is still little compared to the increase in domestic drought-related aid, which has increased a hundred-fold.
- Only systemic and comprehensive solutions are able to combat this element.
The total amount that farmers insure themselves for is huge. According to the Polska z Natury Foundation, which cites data from the MARD, in the years 2016-2021 insurance companies reported 273 events to the Polish Financial Supervision Authority, which they assessed as catastrophic. They paid a total of PLN 3.622 billion in compensation for them. The greatest damage was caused by torrential rains, storms, floods, hailstorms, hurricanes, but the key problem is drought caused by climate change. The increasing risk that farmers have to face is visible in the data on the sum insured. It increased from PLN 6.5 billion in 2009 to over PLN 40 billion in 2022. The amount of premiums due to insurance companies is swelling proportionally.
Read more
Drought continues in Mazovia. Corn is the main crop that suffers
Losses in billions of zlotys
This amount does not reflect real losses. Special commissions at the voivodes estimated that in the years 2015-2019 alone, the total loss to farmers in Poland caused by weather anomalies reached PLN 26.095 billion. The total amount of losses for the years 2009-2019 was estimated at PLN 31.4 billion. This does not compare to the amount of compensation paid, which is PLN 5.72 billion.
The sum insured for farmers. Source: FPzN
State subsidies for agricultural insurance
If a farmer receives direct payments, according to the law, he must insure at least half of the area of subsidized agricultural crops against at least one mandatory risk: hail, spring frost, negative effects of wintering, flood or drought. The state contributes to this insurance. In 2014-2018, the total amount of subsidies per year did not exceed PLN 100 million. Since 2018, it began to grow at a fairly rapid pace, until in 2022 it reached PLN 920 million and remains at this level for now. The subsidy available to farmers amounted to 65% of the total insurance amount after meeting the conditions, but it was recently increased to 70%.
Insurance subsidies, Source: FPzN
Even a hundredfold increase in public aid
Public aid in agriculture has literally exploded in the last decade. National aid for preventing the effects of natural disasters and difficult weather conditions has increased from a modest level of several dozen million zlotys before 2014 to over PLN 2 billion in 2019. It fell slightly in the 20s, but remains at a constant level of around PLN 1 billion (excluding 2021), which is many times higher than the amounts from a decade ago. The correlation with years of burdensome hydrological droughts in our country is very visible – they occurred in 2015 (the first significant increase in compensation), 2018 and 2019.
Read more
Will drought reduce corn yields?
Disaster relief Source: FPzN
According to the Poland from Nature Foundation, weather anomalies in Poland are an increasing threat to Polish agriculture. We observe the need for increased financial outlays in practically every area – from insurance amounts to public aid. Drought is not a new phenomenon in Poland, but its frequency is systematically increasing. In the period 1951-1981, we recorded 6 droughts, on average once every 5 years. In the period 1982-2011, there were as many as 18 droughts – every 2 years. Since 2013, droughts have occurred practically every year. Both droughts and weather anomalies are caused by climate change, which is also occurring in the country. According to common knowledge, the cause of drought is simply the lack of rainfall. The problem is that the total rainfall in Poland, compared to the second half of the 20th century, is now even slightly higher. The basic factor influencing the occurrence of droughts in Poland is the increasingly higher average air temperature, which has increased from approx. 7.5 degrees Celsius in 1950 to 10 degrees Celsius today. Higher temperatures are the result of a changing climate.
Read more
There is a drought. Plow for rapeseed or wait?
No golden mean has been found for years
Systemic solutions in, among others, energy and transport at the state level can prevent this. Reforms in the area of agricultural insurance can also only be carried out systemically. There are many ways to deal with drought, depending on the type of agricultural activity. The key in this context is water management, which is becoming a scarce commodity.
– Most of the sprinklers in operation are manually or clock-controlled installations, where both the liquid dose and the irrigation time are not based on precise analyses of the water content in the soil and its loss from the soil (…) This can lead to insufficient or excessive irrigation of crops. The latter can contribute to excessive water consumption, the resources of which are limited, and at the same time generate water shortages in a given area – emphasizes Dr. Jacek Skudlarski from the Warsaw University of Life Sciences.
-Sustainable water management on a farm requires the use of more advanced technical solutions. The solutions provided by Agriculture 4.0 are helpful, i.e. modern measurement solutions, the Internet of Things, advanced data analytics and automation. Thanks to these solutions, it is possible to collect data on soil moisture and water loss from the soil (evapotranspiration) as well as monitor weather conditions, which allows determining the appropriate moment to start and end irrigation as well as determining the appropriate dose – he adds.
The scientist also emphasizes the importance of retaining water in the soil.
– Sustainable water management is not only about proper irrigation of crops based on the actual water demand of plants, but also about implementing practices aimed at retaining water in the soil. These practices include simplified cultivation in favor of giving up ploughing, especially in spring, using plant cover in fields, increasing the content of humus. It is also about proper drainage of fields aimed at retaining water in the fields during its shortage and draining it in the event of its excess – he explains.
