Key Features of Crop Insurance in Serbia

Abstract

Crop insurance differs from other types of insurance coverage. It provides insurance protection for food production, which, being one the preconditions for survival of humanity, has been exposed to numerous devastating natural risks to a considerable extent. Due to its importance, crop insurance has been the subject of various scientific studies, so the literature from this area is extensive. Unlike many other products, the emerging countries are major food producers. That is why the open issues regarding crop insurance are of immense importance to them, too. Serbia is among the countries that have extremely good preconditions for food production. In this paper, the level of development of Serbian crop insurance has been estimated by using the indicators such as coverage of agricultural land by insurance protection, value of production on the insured land, written premium, damaged land, the amount of incurred claims, and loss ratio. The achievements in this line of insurance have also been compared with certain European countries, the majority of which is still undergoing transition, like Serbia. The values of nearly all indicators point to extremely poor development of crop insurance in Serbia. Both the state and the insurance companies should take key role in improving the current situation, which has also been the case in the more developed countries. The analysis conducted in this paper indicates that the state should provide general preconditions for better utilization of insurance, particularly premium subsidies. It is up to the insurance companies to apply the code of practice as consistently as possible, including the state of the art achievements in crop insurance worldwide.