Insured tea, crabs help China's farmers

Ma Rongda, a tea grower for nearly 30 years, knows how badly his business can be affected by extreme weather. But when heavy snow and cold hit his tea garden earlier this year, Ma was not as worried as he used to be.

"I bought insurance for my tea plantations," he explained. For an annual premium of some 7,000 yuan ($1,050), the 46-year-old received compensation of more than 220,000 yuan - enough to cover all of his production costs last year.

This is the second year that Ma and his fellow farmers in eastern China's Anji County have had access to insurance. Before that, no policies were available for Chinese tea growers looking to secure their crops.