18.1 Introduction

China is an agricultural country. Agriculture plays a fundamental role in China’s national economy and social stability. To maintain a sufficient supply of food for 1.4 billion people is an enormous challenge and the most important task of the government. Agriculture faces a variety of natural disasters such as floods, droughts, hailstones, hurricanes, and so on. Occurrence of these events will devastate crops and livestock and give rise to large-scale economic losses. In order to support a sustained, rapid, and sound development of China’s agricultural economy and to maintain the stability of the society, China has been striving to provide sufficient protection for the development of agriculture and the rural economy by enhancing the role of agriculture insurance.