Tribune. Images of vineyards and orchards devastated by frost invaded our screens three weeks ago. To support farmers in the face of “The greatest agronomic disaster of the beginning of the 21st century”, the government announced the establishment of an exceptional aid fund. Such national solidarity in principle arouses broad popular support but, faced with the rise in climatic hazards, is it relevant to expect the French State to intervene, in each tragedy, like a deus ex machina ? We do not think so.
Many risks are covered today in developed economies by insurance systems. Risk of accident, risk of theft, risk of disease … Yet less than a third of French farmers insure their crops against weather hazards, with particularly low figures for horticulturalists and winegrowers, of whom only one in five has today. hui insurance to face frost, drought or other storm.
The economic difficulties of a good part of the profession are undeniable. It is not a question here of contesting them. But the way the state lavishes aid today is creating what economists call a “Samaritan’s dilemma.” Why would a farmer insure his crops if he thinks that the public authorities have a good chance of coming to his rescue in the event of a major problem? Insurance is always too expensive in this case, and lobbying is a better investment.
More than 85% of American farmers are insured
It would be possible to articulate quite differently the solidarity mechanism and the insurance mechanism. In the United States, a federal public agency, the Risk Management Agency (RMA), offers thus since 1996 a basic insurance for farmers. This is distributed by labeled private insurance companies, which bear part of the risk and supplement this public offering with more sophisticated and costly proposals. In total, more than 85% of American farmers are thus insured.
It is in particular the access to extremely detailed data that allows this massive insurance system. To carry out its action, the federal insurance agency works closely with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), to which it is directly attached, and has very precise information on all agricultural plots, soil texture, crops grown, yields, weather conditions… This allows it to assess insurance premiums as accurately as possible.
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