Compensating farmers with a high-tech touch
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Compensating farmers with a high-tech touch

As TGIA secretary-general, Chutatong Charumilind builds websites and apps to speed damage claims for disaster-hit rice growers.

Thai fragrant jasmine rice has been a renowned agricultural product for a long time, promising an aromatic taste and a stream of revenue to farmers who are regarded as the country's backbone.

Chutatong Charumilind, secretary-general of the insurance premium rating bureau at the Thai General Insurance Association. (Photos by Somchai Poomlard)

With a growing area of 57 million rai, the staple is now the core focus of a smartphone app for crop insurance. The objective is to help farmers manage their risk and move towards sustainable agricultural development.

"Rice insurance is the proudest accomplishment of my career," says Chutatong Charumilind, secretary-general of the Insurance Premium Rating Bureau at the Thai General Insurance Association (TGIA). "I have overseen this scheme since I worked at the Finance Ministry, and it is a national policy. Right now I feel good and passionate when Double Jasmine, an app to help rice farmers make damage claims from their plantations, is visible on my phone."

OPPORTUNITY IN CRISIS

Rewinding back to the last decade, when Mrs Chutatong worked at the Finance Ministry as head of the insurance policy division, she recalls an opportunity to deal with crop insurance when the ministry oversaw the insurance for the first crop season in 2011.

One million rai of total plantation area for the first crop season joined the voluntary scheme, under which an insurance premium was applied for 120 baht per rai -- a single rate covering all risky areas for rice harvesting.

Unfortunately, the ministry's rice plantation insurance stumbled out of the gate, as widespread flooding in 2011 wreaked havoc throughout Thailand. Total damage reached 33 billion baht for the rice crop, with a loss ratio of 550%.

"Insurance companies were quite scared, as they had to pay off claims of 550 baht for every hundred baht they got," Mrs Chutatong says. "This was quite a major pain. But on the other hand, the huge loss [from damage claims] was offset by an increase in awareness among farmers. They realised that they could get money from the government at 25% and another 30% from insurance companies. At least the farmers have about 55% [of compensation] to spend for their daily necessities."

She offers a modest grin when reminiscing about her experiences learning about rice farming from collaboration with related parties such as the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry, which was responsible for the crop insurance scheme for two years before the Finance Ministry took charge.

In 2012, Mrs Chutatong moved to her current post at the TGIA, where she was tasked with a wider range of insurance issues like crop insurance.

At the association, she has drawn on her educational background in statistics and her first job experience as a programmer in the private sector to help insure farmers.

"I didn't want to be in the private sector, I preferred to be in a non-profit organisation to help people," Mrs Chutatong says. "Once I received a scholarship from the Revenue Department, I went to work in the public sector, where I could get a lot of first-hand experience of working with the two ministries. Such experience has become my core strength."

She and her team developed an in-house web-based service called Mali (meaning Jasmine) in 2014. It lets the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) and all insured farmers access services using the Jasmine link at the TGIA webpage.

The BAAC and insured farmers can fill in their information to check the status of claims, enabling the TGIA to pay out damage claims at a faster pace.

"From the farmers' viewpoint, the value of money is not really about the amount itself, but rather the timing to use the money," Mrs Chutatong says. "They may really need money for their children's school fees. The faster we can pay the claim money, the more time there is for the value of money to spend."

In 2015, Jasmine helped a wider spectrum of farmers when all BAAC rice borrowers were brought under the rice insurance scheme, thus increasing the insured plantation area to 22 million rai from 1 million rai four years earlier.

As fate would have it, the loss ratio that year was low at just 40 baht for a premium received of 100 baht (due to minimal natural disasters), thus encouraging more partnership with established insurance firms.

During a span of 10 years, total rice plantation under the crop insurance scheme grew to cover 77% of total rice plantation or 40 million rai.

The Double Jasmine app helps with loss assessment for crop damage claims.

INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGIES

Mrs Chutatong says the TGIA recently introduced Mali-son (Double Jasmine), a parallel project of Jasmine that runs on smartphones as an insurtech app. It helps the BAAC and insured crop farmers take photos to report crop damage.

The app was launched in parallel with another pilot project on which the TGIA collaborated with the Digital Economy and Society Ministry and the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency, this time to evaluate data on natural disasters. Another partner is the Bank of Thailand, which has sound knowledge of agricultural finance and is equipped with an integrated research database.

"We have drones and satellites, but the transformation process is challenging," Mrs Chutatong says. "This is the foundation of a long-term project to become sustainable."

These technologies can allow rice farmers who are outside the perimeter of disaster-affected areas to report primary data to the TGIA for assistance. Crop damage claims can be made when planting zones are located in disaster areas stipulated by the government.

At present, rice insurance claims take about five months because surveys of crop damage still rely on a human workforce. But future surveying will be completed faster with the benefit of integrated technologies.

"The shorter the claim period is, the higher the yield and the value of money there is for farmers, as they can bring money to deduct debt burdens and plan for the next crop season," Mrs Chutatong says.

NEW MILESTONE

While Jasmine was developed by an in-house team and has web-based characteristics, Double Jasmine was developed by a startup founded by a researcher who has experience in farming matters and won innovation awards from the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry.

In the first phase, Double Jasmine offers only loss assessment, a module of insurance.

During the next three years, Mrs Chutatong hopes to see the other two modules of insurance -- portfolio monitoring and underwriting -- added to the app.

The app should eventually encompass other crops such as cassava and rubber, and possibly extend to marine insurance.

"The modern working model needs to blend our strengths together with the strengths of others," Mrs Chutatong says. "This encompasses listening skills and raising the necessary questions, especially for executives who have to work with the new generation."

In her own words, Mrs Chutatong's working style is inspired by two role models: Yarnsak Manomaiphiboon, secretary-general of the Association of Thai Securities Companies, and Lavaron Sangsnit, director-general of the Fiscal Policy Office.

"Khun Yarnsak always asked me many challenging questions that made me review, rethink and propel new ideas," she says. "Khun Lavaron was a senior colleague when we worked together on a small team initiating the rice insurance project -- he taught me many things about working."

Today she manages a small team of 10 at the TGIA. Before talking with or giving guidance to her staff, Mrs Chutatong always considers her instructions carefully to hone a clear message. Email is her preferred communication channel for work, allowing herself and the staff sufficient time to think and prepare before scheduled meetings.

"The hardest thing is giving answers about what we need or want to do," she says. "If I give unclear orders, my staff may have a hard time finding out what their boss wants."

After the project is started and staff have further questions, she often must rethink and review again.

Mrs Chutatong's motto at work is to always seek knowledge, develop new skills and use past experiences to help develop the team, which are the traits of Double Jasmine.


BIO DATA

Chutatong Charumilind
Age: 49

EDUCATION

- Bachelor of Science in statistics (with honours), Chulalongkorn University
- Master of Arts in applied economics, University of Michigan
- Doctor of Philosophy in economics, Cornell University

CAREER
- 2012-present: Secretary-general, Insurance Premium Rating Bureau, Thai General Insurance Association
- 2007-12: Head, Insurance Policy Division, Fiscal Policy O ce, Finance Ministry
- 2005-06: Economist, International Trade Strategy Department, Commerce Ministry
- 2002-05: Economist, Revenue Department, Finance Ministry
- 2002: Research fellow, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
- 1996-97: Economist, Revenue Department, Finance Ministry
- 1992-94: Programmer, Passenger Sales and Services Information Systems Department, Thai Airways International Plc

FAMILY
- Married with one son

HOBBIES

- Tennis, travel

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