Weather damage to agriculture last winter is estimated at more than NIS 150 million

The amount of weather damage to agriculture last winter was over NIS 150 million, according to a statement from the Natural Damage Insurance Fund (Kent). According to Kent, the compensation to the farmers for the damage to the farmers is slightly lower than that paid to the farmers for the damages of the previous winter, but the extent of the areas where planting was carried out last winter, such as greenhouse vegetables and crops in open areas was low compared to previous years. This is due to the inability of farmers to access the fields, in the north and south, as a result of the war.

Shmulik Turgeman, CEO of Kent: “The war, and the confiscations that followed, proved once again the importance of local agriculture and the need for a national plan that would guarantee the supply of fresh, blue and white food.”

Kent points out that the increase in the amount of damages in the winter is constantly increasing, when in the winter of 21-22 the growers were paid about 140 million shekels and in the winter of 20-21 they were compensated about 130 million shekels. It should be noted that the summary of winter damage refers only to weather damage, and does not include the damage caused to farmers as a result of the war in the south and north.

According to Kent, the winter of 2023/24 was characterized by warm weather that hit our region until December. The lengthening of the autumn season accompanied by high temperatures resulted in significant damage, especially to the vegetable crops that are intended for growing in the colder winter months and even affected the entry of deciduous plantations into winter dormancy, which is essential for providing a harvest in the 2024 season.

Later in the winter, starting in mid-January 2024, extremely unusual amounts of precipitation fell in most parts of the country north of the Kiryat Gat line. These precipitations lasted for about a month and a half and caused heavy damage to vegetable and field crops, greenhouses and ornamental plants as well as extensive flooding of growing areas. These rains are not considered blessing rains, as they are amounts of rain of hundreds of mm in a very short period of time, there is no possibility of draining them in the growing areas and their intensity causes severe damage.

They also add in Kent that in addition to the winter rains, the wheat fields in the south of the country suffered from a severe drought that had not been seen in our region for many years. In the Tzalim area, for example, only about 50 mm of rain fell during the winter. Because of this, over one hundred thousand dunams of wheat crops were lost, almost completely. In these drought conditions, growing winter grains without insurance becomes an impossible financial burden on the farmers.

According to Kent, a significant event that caused millions of damages to crops is the severe heat that arrived this year earlier than usual, during Passover, and was broken by extreme hail events. Such events during the blossoming period of the deciduous orchards, the end of the avocado harvest and the hay harvest cause serious damages of tens of millions of shekels to the crops, when the growers have no ability to defend themselves against them.

Fewer reports, more damage

Kent’s data shows that despite the overall increase in the amount of compensation compared to recent winters, the number of damage reports was actually lower and amounted to approximately 3,200 reports received from the growers. Compared to about 4,700 reports the previous winter. In Kent they say that this fact illustrates the consequences of the climate crisis: the extreme events become more focused, more powerful when each unusual event causes a greater scope of damage. It also appears that, similar to the previous winter, the average processing time for a compensation claim was only about 10 days from the completion of the damage assessment procedures, except in areas where the company’s assessors were prevented from entering the affected areas, by order of the security officials.

According to Kent’s data, the majority of the weather damage last winter, about NIS 41 million, was absorbed by the Pelha towers. The vegetable growers, including pepper, garlic, onion and spice growers, will be compensated by Kent for approximately NIS 34 million. The fruit growers, including apricot, almond, pear and other growers, will be compensated by Kent for approximately NIS 25 million. Additional significant damages were caused during the winter to the citrus groves (about 10 million NIS), the avocados (about 6 million NIS) and the growth houses (over 2 million NIS). Heavy damage was also recorded to the livestock crops, as a result From the outbreak of various diseases, Kent will compensate the chicken owners with approximately NIS 20 million and the cattle breeders with approximately NIS 6 million.

Shmulik Turgeman, CEO of Kent: “The combination of the constant increase in the extent of damages, together with the consequences and lessons of the “Iron Swords” war, requires the government to provide comprehensive systemic solutions to the field of agriculture, first of all increasing the direct support for farmers through the insurance subsidy. As is done all over the world”

“One of the significant lessons of the war, as we saw in the Turkish conduct that imposed a boycott on the export of critical goods to Israel, is that Israel must not rely on imports from abroad. Certainly not when it comes to fresh food, fruits and vegetables. The correct and most effective way to ensure a stable price level, a regular supply of fresh agricultural produce and maintaining the independence of blue and white food, is through increasing direct support to farmers. This support will allow the local farmers to increase the volume of produce, despite the great economic risks inherent in this, the large investments required of them and despite the constant increase in the extent of weather damage to crops.”