Victims of the floods along China's Huaihe and Yangtze rivers have claimed less than six percent of the losses inflicted from insurance companies, as insurance remains a new thing to most Chinese farmers.

Losses of 680 million yuan (about US$90.7 million) had been claimed by flood victims by July 15, said Yuan Li, spokesman with China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), on Tusday.

But the total losses from the floods had hit 12 billion yuan (about US$1.6 billion) by July 16, according to the Office of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

Yuan attributed the phenomenon to insufficient awareness of agricultural insurance and farmers' underestimation of possible damage and disasters.

Chinese farmers were much more vulnerable to disasters than urban dwellers as the government usually sacrificed relatively backward rural areas during flooding to protect the cities.

The use of the Mengwa flood diversion area along the Huaihe River, for instance, forced 585,000 people to relocate.

So far, 3,200 of the 130,000 claims had been settled, which amounted to 20.34 million yuan (about US$2.71 million).

The government launched trial insurance schemes for farm produce to help tide farmers over possible disasters.

In south China's Hainan Province, the local government subsidized 50 percent of insurance premiums on six agricultural products.

Similar experiments had been carried out in six other provincial areas such as Jilin, Inner Mongolia and Zhejiang.

To encourage pig breeding and bring meat prices under control, the government provided insurance for sows against blue-ear disease, said Yuan.

China has 56 domestic insurance companies, eight insurance groups and holding companies, and nine insurance assets management companies, while 45 foreign insurance companies from 15 countries and regions have established 128 agencies in China.

(Xinhua News Agency July 25, 2007)