BBC Countryfile’s Adam Henson explored the role of insurance within the business of farming and agriculture in a recent episode of the Chartered Insurance Institute’s The Journal Podcast.
One of the UK’s most recognisable farmers, Adam Henson often presents on Countryfile from his family farm, Cotswold Farm Park, which welcomes around 185,000 visitors throughout the season. He appeared on The Journal Podcast alongside David Harrison, NFU Mutual’s Farming Development Manager. NFU Mutual is recognised as the UK’s leading rural insurer, insuring around 75% of UK farms.
On risk and having the right insurance cover in place while owning and running Cotswold Farm Park, Adam said: “[It’s] absolutely essential. If you haven’t got the correct insurance in place, you’re completely open to a very dodgy situation legally and financially… Every farm is different, financially and physically. You need to look at your requirements and discuss that with your insurance broker. When you are around a table with [an insurance professional], they have the experience of the intricacies of insurance, which is very helpful. It’s often much better to do that face to face so you can talk it through and walk around the farm itself. They will point out things that you probably wouldn’t have even thought of and a lot of that advice can be mitigation. It’s solving the problems before they event start.
“As far as insurance goes, keeping our farms secure is difficult. Rural crime is growing. The resources to protect us from that via the police force is challenging for them because they just haven’t got the resources there. Insurance and making sure you’ve got support is part of your farming business and essential so that you know that you are covered.”
David Harrison also shared his insights on the many risks involved with farming: “It’s a risky occupation to be involved with. Health and safety in farming is an area that needs a lot of improvement. There’s still far too many serious injuries and fatalities every year. So that is an area that we put a lot of focus on in working with the farming community, to try and improve the health and safety record. There are the challenges of climate as well – I think we are all fully aware of the impacts of climate change. When we look through our stats at the end of the year and the amounts that we’re paying out in terms of the frequency of weather events and the severity of weather events, storms and floods are an increasing challenge.”
On the Government’s recent Budget announcements, Adam said: “It has hit a massive blow to agriculture and the farming community… Every farm is completely different, every business is different. Every family set up and situation, whether it’s a limited company or a partnership, whether there’s senior members of the family or junior members of the family that want to succeed their farms from them – we need to take solid professional advice from accountants, land agents, solicitors to understand how it might impact our own businesses, because some will be a lot worse than others.
“As farmers, we have to be really, really careful of our messaging and make sure we get our plea across carefully and professionally, so that it is well received because the consumer, the general public, won’t understand it because there is a huge divide between what goes on in the countryside and what happens in the city. There are many people in the cities who might never been onto farms. They don’t understand agricultural production. When we’re screaming and shouting anything over a million pounds is going to be affected by agricultural profit relief, and that we now only get 50% of relief on that, a million [pounds] to someone who lives in a flat in Hackney is beyond belief. So, it is quite sensitive how we communicate this to the consumer. It is the government that we really need to get through to, but as an industry, we need to just think carefully.”
The episode explored a broad range topics including technological developments within farming, the importance of understanding where our food comes from, and areas of growth within rural insuring.
The full episode of The Journal Podcast is now available here.
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