影響臺灣農作物保險實施效益之因素評估與分析

Abstract

臺灣夏秋季易受颱風、豪雨影響，冬季則有寒害，造成農業嚴重損失。為提升對農民的保障，農委會於2015年建立農作物保險制度，始於高接梨，後續擴展到所有梨種並推出芒果農作物保險及釋迦收入保險，雖屬起步階段，但商品已呈多元化發展。本研究先分析各國農作物保險實施概況，發現於發展之初需以提高補助、取消救濟、未參與者不能得到政府其他補助、超過一定面積需強制投保、由國外已具經驗之公司投入、開發多元商品以及運用多重管道宣傳等方式維持保險制度推動，而保費補貼可與其他重要農業政策結合，不僅提升參與度，亦可以促進其他政策推動。臺灣也應參考美國、日本及韓國訂定明確法源依據，兼顧產險公司及農民權益。 本研究接著分析及評估影響臺灣農作物保險實施效益之因素，調查對象為臺中市及苗栗縣梨農，以邏輯迴歸分析受訪者背景與購買需求、購買行為及購買意願之關聯性，結果顯示經營面積越大者越覺得需要且較可能實際購買保險，教育程度越高者及非農業收入佔整體經濟收入比例越低者以後購買保險的可能性越高。為使保險制度有效推展，可將經營面積較大、農業以外收入佔整體收入比例較低、教育程度較高之農民視為潛在客群優先推廣，帶動其他農民投入。分析受訪者對梨保險的認知，結果顯示農民已熟悉農會為主要訊息來源，政府可妥善運用地方農會作為有利媒介；而調查認為需要農作物保險之原因，依據結果推測臺灣天災頻繁、救助制度保障不足、梨單價高、一年一收且受訪者以專業農居多可成為臺灣持續推動梨保險的契機。受訪者最在意承保風險及保費，未購買者也認為保費太高是主因，因此商品開發需評估農民接受度，並以政府補助保費來提升誘因，又多數農民尚未完全了解農作物保險，認為制度設計太複雜、宣傳頻率太低及解說方式不易理解，應積極以淺顯易懂方式透過農民熟悉的管道溝通。 此外，受訪者中曾購買的18位農民多數購買「政府災助連結型」，本身對保險制度產生認同感，顯示推動初期農民較願意接受與原先救助制度相似的商品，購買者對保險公司的整體服務滿意度最高，理賠金的發放速度滿意度最低，多表示會繼續也會建議或鼓勵別人購買，願意支持保險制度。又去年寒害使投保者多有領到理賠金，能確實感受到投保的好處。未來政府及保險公司勘災作業效率會隨經驗累積而改善提升，藉由農民口耳相傳可逐漸提高投保率，逐步建立農作物保險觀念。

Taiwan frequently suffers from typhoons, torrential rain in summer and autumn and cold damage in winter, which cause severe agricultural loss. To give agricultural operators more protection, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan has established crop insurance scheme in 2015. This scheme started from top-grafted pears, then expanded to all kinds of pears, and insurance for mangos and revenue insurance for sugar apples have also been implemented. Although crop insurance scheme in Taiwan is still in early stage, these commercial products have already showed their diversification. This study first analyzed the condition of agricultural insurance among nations, found out that many measures were necessary in early development to maintain insurance policy, including increasing premium subsidy support, cancelling other relief measures, gaining other supports from government only if you are participants, forced to participate if the cultivated areas exceed, investment from experienced foreign company, developing diversified products and propagating through many ways. Premium subsidy can also be linked up with other important agricultural policies, which not only enhance penetration ratio but push other policies forward. Our government should refer to the U.S.A., Japan and Korea as well to draw up a specific law, in order to protect both insurance companies and farmers. After that, this study evaluated the factors affecting agricultural insurance implementation results in Taiwan from a survey questionnaire given to top-grafted pears farmers in Taichung City and Miaoli County, and logistic regression model is used to analyze the correlation between farmers' background and their need, behavior and desire of purchase. The results indicated that the farmers who cultivate more area are more likely to feel need and purchase crop insurance, the better-educated farmers and who have less off-farm income are more willing to purchase in the future. To promote crop insurance scheme effectively, we can take those producers as potential consumers, and they may bring others to join crop insurance scheme together. Then this study also analyzed the observations' understanding of pear insurance, it suggested that government can take farmers' association as advantageous channel to release policy because farmers are quite familiar with it, and it also showed that high frequency of natural disasters, insufficiency of relief system's protection, high market price of pears, single harvest season per year and farmers are mostly professional are all favorable factors for policy execution. Respondents care most about the risks that insurance cover and premium, those who didn't purchase also agree that high premium is the main reason, therefore, insurance products should meet farmers' acceptability, and be raised purchase incentives by subsidy from government. Besides, most participants in this survey haven't understood crop insurance scheme completely because of complicated design, low frequency of extension and commentated ways can't be understood easily, government should communicate with farmers in easier ways and through channels which they are familiar with. Moreover, most of the 18 respondents who have purchased crop insurance chose the kind of products which is linked up with relief system, and approved insurance policy, it revealed that farmers are more likely to accept the products which are similar to original relief system. The consumers have highest satisfaction toward service of insurance company but lowest satisfaction toward indemnity release, and most of them are willing to purchase again and will encourage others to purchase. In addition, participants can truly feel the advantages that crop insurance brings because many of them obtained indemnity due to severe cold damage last year. In the future, the efficiency of crop insurance scheme will be improved because of ample experiences, and the penetration ratio will be increased gradually as well.