Crop Insurance Today First Quarter 2021 - 7

Attendees at the joint meeting of the Iowa and Nebraska Regional/State Committees.

forecasting and impacts during the Missouri
R/S Committee meeting.
* The Indiana/Ohio/Michigan R/S Committee
met in early February and Mark Flohr, NCIS,
provided information on the draft hemp policy, characteristics of the plant, and hemp production practices. Committee liaison, Don
Hutsell, NCIS, provided an association update, including information on the antitrust
provisions and professional conduct policy.
* James Houx, NCIS, provided an update to
the Kentucky/Tennessee R/S Committee on
recent NCIS committee recommendations,
agronomic research, the Prevented Planting
Standards Handbook, the Loss Adjustment
Manual, other handbooks, and Crop-Hail
loss instructions.
* Lynette Gruchow, Pottawatomie County FSA
Office presented Iowa and Nebraska state FSA
updates during the joint meeting of the Iowa
and Nebraska R/S Committees. Also, Dr. Justin McMechan, University of Nebraska, discussed corn growth stages and the impact of
hail damage and provided information on the
Soybean Gall Midge.
* During the Arizona/California/Nevada Regional/State Committee annual meeting, Jeff
Yasui and Ryan Seely, RMA Davis RO, gave
an update on crops, which focused mainly on
cherries and almonds in California and Pasture Rangeland Forage in Arizona.

Work Becomes Virtual

As the pandemic set in, NCIS' primary focus was on facilitating communications
between NCIS member companies and the
USDA, and specifically the Risk Management
Agency. Starting in mid-March NCIS, the AIPs,
and RMA, held weekly telephone conferences
to discuss the industry's response to the pandemic. Based on these communications, RMA
issued several manager's bulletins and informational memorandums related to COVID-19
that were implemented by the companies, their
agents, and adjusters.
After NCIS' decision to close the office in
mid-March and have staff work remotely from
home, it became apparent that many of the association activities-
-meetings, loss adjuster
schools, and conferences-would need to be
held virtually.

R/S Committee Chairman
Training

Staff quickly rose to the challenge as the
2020 Regional/State Chairman training was held
via webinar in late March. During the two-day
meeting, the committee chairs were given specific information on regional/state guidelines,
parliamentary procedure, the recommendation
process, and how to plan meetings and loss adjuster schools and field days.

Standing Committee
Meetings

Typically, the spring standing committee
meetings are held in person to help facilitate
more conversation and allow the members to get
to know one another. But since that wasn't possible, they were also held virtually.
* The MPCI Underwriting & Operations
(U&O) Committee and representatives from
the RMA Kansas City office to discuss any
remaining 2018 Farm Bill implementation
activities, various underwriting changes
proposed for 2021 and a review of RMA's
COVID-19 related bulletins.
* The MPCI Policy, Procedure, and Loss Adjustment (MPCIPPLA) group discussed a
variety of topics including the COVID-19
impacts on crop insurance, new programs
available for upcoming crop years and loss
adjustment and procedural challenges facing
the industry. RMA-KC also participated in
this meeting.
* The Crop-Hail Policy, Procedure, and Loss
Adjustment (CHPPLA) Committee discussed adding deductibles to the NCIS corn
wind and green snap endorsements and
adding wind to companion plan for corn
in some states. The group also discussed research results for sweet corn, popcorn, and
grain sorghum.
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Crop Insurance Today First Quarter 2021

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