Natural Disasters - Climate Changes and Rice Insurance in the Mekong River Delta

Abstract

In recent years, many natural disasters have occurred in the Mekong River Delta, causing severe consequences on all socio - economic aspects, especially agricultural production. Asa major granary and the key of food security for Vietnam, playing animportant role in annual exports of 5-7 million tons of rice, the life of farmers in the Mekong River Delta are thoughmuch better than the past, but they always face with instability of natural disasters, especially the impact of climate changes. In terms of helping people quickly overcome the damages caused by natural disasters, stabilizing production and living, agricultural insurance is of the utmost significance and will be the most effective and practical way. However, in the past years, there were many limitations of agricultural insurancefor the whole country in general and for the Mekong River Delta in particular, including that it was not linked to agricultural development, especially in rice production. Moreover, through the recent natural disaster occurences and relief situations, including the 2016 saline - drought season, it is shown that restricts in the official forms of relief for the people in natural disaster areas still existed. These forms were not timely and close to the reality, so it is necessary to have a new way to make it more effective: Renewing the structure for agricultural insurance. This article discusses about the agricultural insurance related the natural disasters with the focus on rice production.