Farming fund will help poor regions

A leading property and insurance company will help up to 100,000 people in rural regions climb out of poverty by 2018.

Ping An Property and Casualty Insurance Co Ltd has put together a program with local authorities in Taijiang county, Guizhou province, to back farmers and increase their incomes.

Up to 100 million yuan ($15.1 million) has been set aside for a fund to finance mushroom cultivation in the agricultural community.

Ping An has donated 50 million yuan to this loan and insurance project with the rest coming from Taijiang county authorities.

“Since there will be no interest on these poverty-alleviation loans, this will encourage farmers to take part (in this mushroom crop pro- gram),” said Cao Liuyi, deputy general manager of Ping An.

“It is important that every penny of the fund goes to the farmers,” he added.

The company will also introduce a “price fluctuation index” to guarantee farmers make a profit when they sell their mushroom crops.

Naturally, the program has been welcomed by government officials.

“Lack of funding is a big challenge in terms of poverty-alleviation,” said Fan Bingqing, viceprefect of Qian-dongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefec- ture, which includes Taijiang county.

“The participation of an insurance company will encourage the capital market as well,” Fan added.

Another part of the fund centers around insurance for farmers and their crops.

Yang Zhongyi, general manager of Ping An’s agricultural insurance division, pointed out that recognition technology will be used to underwrite claims.

“In the past, many agricultural policies lacked signatures,” he said. “So, we plan to use face and voice recognition, as well as finger prints, to solve the problem.”

Ping An has also harnessed satellite remote sensing and the internet of things, or IoT, to collect data when it comes to insurance claims.

Founded in 1988, the company has about 48 million clients with registered assets of up to 21 billion yuan by June.

Its property and casualty insurance operation includes poverty-alleviation projects in more than 10 provinces, serving around 57 million farmers.

“Ping An will make further investments in education, charity and agriculture in poor areas,” said Sun Jianping, CEO and chairman of the company.

The poverty-alleviation model launched by Taijiang county will be introduced in other regions, including central Hubei province and northwestern Shaanxi province.