The Turkish authorities are considering new rules that would require farmers in the same district to insure all plots of a specific crop, according to Mr Bekir Engurulu, general manager and a director of TARSIM, the state-backed Agricultural Insurance Pool.
He made these remarks shortly after frost in April hit more than 30 provinces across Turkiye and caused fruit farmers huge crop losses.
“We’ve identified damages of TRY21bn ($520m) due to the agricultural frost,” said Mr Engurulu.
The frost, which occurred on 10-15 April, affected apricots, grapes, figs, apples, plums, cherries, sour cherries, hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, peaches, and persimmons.
The head of the Turkish Farmers' Association, Mr Huseyin Demirtas, said that in some provinces, the loss of produce neared 80%.
Separately, in an interview this month with the newspaper Cumhuriyet, Republican People's Party lawmaker Omer Fethi Gurer said that the extent of the disaster had not yet been fully assessed, although partial support was provided to those insured by TARSIM.
Mr Gurer said that crop yield losses are expected to be 32% for peaches, 55% for cherries, 65% for apricots, 54% for pistachios, 40% for olives and apples, 18% for grapes, 27% for walnuts and 20% for lemons. He said that these figures are alarming, and that similar problems exist for other crops.
He said that TARSIM should be restructured to address potential disasters that may arise from climate change.
So serious is the disaster that an investigation commission was formed in Parliament to look into the extent of the disaster and to evaluate measures to mitigate agricultural losses from climate change, as well as any needed amendments to legislation.