📋 Tender Overview
The Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) of the Senate approved this Wednesday (26) a project that promotes changes to the legal frameworks for rural insurance. Authored by Senator Tereza Cristina (PP-MS), it received a favorable opinion from the rapporteur, Senator Jayme Campos (Uniao-MT), who made changes to the project.
The alternative text presented by Jayme Campos still needs to go through a supplementary vote at the CCJ. If approval is confirmed by the committee, the matter will go directly to the Chamber of Deputies for analysis (unless there is an appeal for a vote in the Senate Plenary).
Among the laws changed by the proposal is the one that established agricultural insurance (), which would use the term rural insurance -- in order to cover not only agriculture, but also livestock, aquaculture, fishing and other productive activities carried out in the countryside.
Among the losses covered by rural insurance, the project included those resulting from natural phenomena, pests, diseases and other factors that affect activities in the field. The rapporteur added that the insurance will also be responsible for covering losses to goods or animals used in rural activities. Furthermore, he included among the actions and instruments of agricultural policy the recovery of degraded areas.
In his alternative text, Jayme Campos defines rural insurance as an instrument of agricultural policy and insurance policy, aimed at protecting rural producers, sector efficiency and better allocation of public resources. The text determines that the contractual conditions of rural insurance must comply with (which deals with private insurance) and include mandatory clauses that regulate, for example, deadlines for reporting and settling claims.
According to the project, the Interministerial Rural Insurance Management Committee, linked to the Ministry of Agriculture, must establish consultative committees with participation from the private sector, including representatives of insurance companies and rural producers. The committee will also be responsible for regulating the information to be provided by insurers in subsidized insurance operations.
Benefits
An important change concerns the relationship between insurance and rural credit. The project allows public authorities to grant benefits to producers who take out rural insurance -- such as lower interest rates, longer terms and limits, priority access to rural credit and insurance premium financing. These incentives may be cumulative.
Grant
The project also changes , which authorizes the Executive Branch to sponsor part of the insurance amount paid by rural producers. To access the economic subsidy, the producer must provide data about his agricultural activity.
The alternative text by Jayme Campos includes the contractual conditions of insurance as a criterion for differentiating the subsidy, prioritizing those considered to reduce risk, induce technology or promote environmental recovery.
Background
The project also modifies the , which authorizes the Union to participate as a shareholder in a fund intended for supplementary coverage of rural insurance risks.
The rapporteur established that the payment of quotas by the Union will be authorized by decree and may be carried out by the Minister of Finance. Possible sources of resources include real estate, assets or rights of the Union, as well as budgetary resources and other assets.
The text determines that the funds board of directors must establish conditions for granting supplementary coverage in order to guarantee its permanent solvency. It also authorizes the fund to acquire an Insurance Risk Letter (LRS) as a form of risk transfer, as long as the rules equivalent to other types of coverage are respected. The statute must also provide that the fund will not pay income to its shareholders, although it will allow the redemption of shares based on the asset situation.
Risks
In justifying the project, Tereza Cristina highlights the risks faced by rural producers. The activity is subject to having its results compromised by climatic and health adversities, in addition to incurring the risks inherent to any business activity, such as price, operational, legal, image and market fluctuations, states the author of the proposal.
According to Jayme Campos, it is necessary to modernize current legislation, especially in the context of recurring crop failures in recent years, which has harmed many producers in the country. In his assessment, producers have had severe impairments in their financial capacity to maintain their activity, with negative impacts on the business chain that revolves around agriculture and on the income formation of municipalities in which agriculture has a relevant weight.
-- Three years ago we had R$1 billion to cover rural insurance. This has dropped and, in 2025, we have R$400 million. Instead of going up, it comes in descending order. Now, in a country of this size, which, particularly, I think is contributing to thefood security on the planet, the government must be sensitive -- argued Jayme.
Agencia Senado (Reproduction authorized upon citation from Agencia Senado)
