Crop Insurance Today February 2015 - (Page 4)

CropInsurance TODAY A New Tool in the Risk Management Safety Net Whole-Farm Revenue Protection By Leiann Nelson, Risk Management Agency Farming and ranching is expensive. From operating costs, to land and machinery costs, producers have a large investment in every commodity that is grown. The financial impact of losing a commodity can be substantial and operating without a risk management safety net makes it difficult, even impossible, to continue farming after a loss event if no insurance is available. Producers may also find it difficult to obtain the credit necessary to produce a commodity without the collateral provided by Federal crop insurance. Improved insurance availability for spe- 4 FEBRUARY2015 cialty commodity growers is a need within the risk management safety net that has been evident for several years. Across the U.S., interest in healthy eating with support for direct, local, regional, organic, and specialty farm markets is widespread. Additionally, there is increased focus on sustainable agricultural practices supported by the diversification of commodities on farms. Together, these have created much of the demand for a better safety net for specialty crop growers. This interest is evident as specialty crops have been included in the last several Farm Bills with provisions for whole-farm insurance also included in the Agricultural Act of 2014. The Risk Management Agency (RMA) received many calls over the past few years asking for the development of a whole-farm insurance product with enhanced features and improvements from the previous Adjusted Gross Revenue and Adjusted Gross Revenue-Lite (AGR and AGR-Lite) insurance. It is expensive and resource-intensive to research, develop, and implement one single commodity insurance product, much less the large number of products that would be necessary to cover the specialty commodities grown in the U.S. However, the largest single factor preventing development of individual crop insurance policies is simply the lack of sufficient data. RMA's Portfolio Analysis, released in July 2013, identified percentages of U.S. acres as not covered by insurance as shown in Table 1.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crop Insurance Today February 2015

A Work in Progress
Whole-Farm Revenue Protection
2014 A Year of Involvement
NCIS Agricultural Research & Technology Program
Crop Insurance In Action: Art Wiebelhaus, Fordyce, Nebraska
In Memory Mike Felt
In Memory Irl Oaks, Jr.
Insurable Crops Location & Plans
FFA Proficiency Winner

Crop Insurance Today February 2015