OnJune 7-9, 2017, the “5th International Agricultural Risk, Finance, and Insurance Conference” (IARFIC) took place in the headquarter of SCOR in Paris, France. The theme of th IARFIC conference wastheagricultural technology.
The conference was co-hosted by the China Institute for Actuarial Science (CIAS) at the Central University of Finance and Economics, the University of Waterloo and the University of Manitoba. The conference was founded by CIAS, with the inaugural conference held in 2012, Beijing, Subsequent conferences were successfully held in Vancouver (Canada), Zurich (Switzerland), and Washington DC (USA) in years 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015, respectively. The theme of IARFIC is to bring together leading world-wide experts in the fields of agriculture, finance, insurance, and risk management from theacademics,industryandgovernment,covering very important and timely topics in an effort to maintain a strong agricultural sector and improve global food security.
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Conference photo
The 5thIARFIC conference was successfully opened on June 8 at 8:15am, drawing more than 100 elite participants (academicians, practitioners, policymakers) from more than ten countries and regions including France, China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, Germany, India, Australia, the Netherlands, Ukraine and Sri Lanka.The opening ceremony was presided by Professor Ken Seng Tan(University ofWaterloo and conference co-chair). Prof. Junsheng Li (Vice President of CUFE), Prof. Lysa Porth (University of Manitoba and conference co-chair), Mr. Rene Kunz (Agricultural Insurance Director of SCOR), and Mr. Philippe Trainar (CEO of SCOR).Vice President of CUFE, Prof. Junsheng Li expounded the development of China’s agricultural insurance and China ’s agricultural policy, encouraged more extensive and in-depth cooperation and collaboration in the fields of agricultural risk, finance and insurance among the conference participants.Healso briefly introduced the achievements of CUFE and CIAS.
Opening speech by Professor Ken Seng Tan
Opening speech by Prof. Li Junsheng, Vice President of CUFE
Opening speech by Mr. Rene Kunz,the Agricultural Insurance Director of SCOR
This conference contained three types of presentations: Keynote speech, Discussion Panel and Research Presentations.
For thekeynote speeches, Prof. Lysa Porth reported the Canadian forage insurance based on the satellite-based indices.Mr. Bruce Stephen, Agricultural Innovation Director ofthe CanadianMinistry of Agriculture, provided an overview of agricultural risk innovation.Mr. Steven Fray, the senior researcher at the University of Waterloo, talked about applying advanced hydrological simulation techniques to predict and quantify agricultural water-related risks. Prof. Calum Turvey at Cornell University showcased the sustainability of catastrophe bonds and debt. In addition, Mr. Ron Weber, the economist at the German Development Bank, Mr. Srini Sundaram, the founder and CEO of AGVESTO company, and Mr. Antoine Roumiguie, the R&D engineer of the French Airbus Company, covered the topics "Accelerating climate adaptation in agriculture through insurance", "Agricultural insurance risk management platform - A commercial perspective," and "Satellite imagery and pasture insurance, a commercial service in France",respectively.
Keynote speech by Prof. Lysa Porth of University of Manitoba
Keynote speech by Prof. Calum Turvey of Cornell University
The discussion panel included two key topics: "Big Data" and "Implementation of crop insurance: An international perspective". Experts and scholars from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, the Cornell University, the University of Liverpool and the World Bank provided some thought provoking and vibrant discussions on these two topics. Prof. Joshua Woodard, assistant professor at Cornell University,shared the agricultural big data management technology in the discussion panel.
Discussion panel experts
Prof. Joshua Woodard discusses his big data platform
In the research presentations panel, scholars from various countries sharing about their latest academic research. Sun Yan, a CUFE’s PhD Student,gaveapresentation entitled "Design and validate weather index-based insurance contracts of rice in China", and Xie Yong, a CUFE’s School of Insuranceundergraduate student, gave a presentation entitled "Partial relative risk aversion and agricultural insurance demand in China ". Through this conference, CUFE students have broadened and enriched their academic horizons and improved academic ability bycommunicating with other scholars in this conference.
Xie Yong, Prof. Tan and Sun Yan
The Fifth IARFIC Conference successfully closedintheafternoon, June 9th. This conference not only provided a platform for the worldwide experts from academics, industry and government in the field of agricultural risk management, but also expanded the academic influence of CUFE around the world, as well as the enhanced international influence of CIAS.
Finally, sincerely thank SCOR for the generous sponsorship to this conference.
Website of IARFIC：
http://www.iarfic.org/
