In 2023, about 420,000 hectares of sown areas were insured in Azerbaijan. The number of appeals to the Agricultural Insurance Fund in connection with damage to sown areas, according to Fuad Sadygov, Chairman of the Board of the Fund, has reached 7,000 year to date, Trend writes.

Soon, compensation payments will begin to be paid for farms and crop areas affected by heavy rains, hail, mudflows, and floods that were observed in May and June. According to Sadygov, about 1,000 applications were received from insured farmers because of floods and rains alone.

"The crop areas of some of our farmers have been damaged several times during the season in various forms - hail in the field, strong hurricane winds and so on", he said. A total of 125,000–130,000 hectares of insured crop areas were affected to varying degrees. "The production volumes of these territories, insured by us, amount to about AZN 135 million (~EUR 72.58 million)", Sadygov explained.

"The evaluation process will be completed by the end of this month (July). We think that compensation payments for losses will begin at the end of August", said the head of the fund. He also noted that heavy rains, hail, mudflows, and floods have sharply increased interest and demand for agricultural insurance.

Agricultural insurance was introduced in Azerbaijan in 2020. Currently, agricultural insurance covers 29 risks for 41 plants. This includes natural phenomena - storms, hurricanes, floods, mudflows, as well as actions of third parties, plant diseases, pests and various phenomena that do not depend on the human factor. To support farmers, the state pays 50% of insurance premiums.

*EUR 1 = AZN 1.86 (01.08.2023)