Farm Bureau Compares Crop Insurance to Ad Hoc Disaster

As Congress continues preparation for the 2018 Farm Bill, rural America continues to voice its support for maintaining a strong crop insurance system.

One of the loudest voices in that chorus belongs to the country’s largest farm organization, the American Farm Bureau Federation.  An active member of the crop insurance coalition, Farm Bureau is working hard to dispel myths about farmers’ most important risk management tool.

And they are churning out useful analysis to help lawmakers make the best decisions possible.  Farm Bureau’s latest analysis compared crop insurance to disaster aid as a means to help farmers rebound after Mother Nature strikes.

Here’s an excerpt from that piece:

There are several benefits of crop insurance over ad-hoc disaster assistance. First, crop insurance provides certainty that in the event of a loss a farmer will be indemnified based on a portion of the value of the crop or livestock. Under crop insurance, farmers know what the losses are and indemnity payments are made directly to the farmer. With ad-hoc disaster packages, the compensation to an eligible farmer or rancher may not reflect the value of the loss….

Second, under crop insurance, when a farmer experiences a loss, an indemnity payment will be made within 30 days following the signing of the final loss paperwork. These claims are finalized through a private-sector delivery system. With ad-hoc disaster payments, the assistance payments may be delayed by several months or years following a loss. For farmers experiencing a revenue decline or a crop loss, timely indemnification provides an opportunity for growers to meet their financial obligations. Farmers do not have this same payment capacity with unanticipated emergency disaster payments. 

Third, under ad-hoc disaster payments, a farmer may not be required to prove a loss on the farm. Rather, farmers growing a specific crop or located in a specific part of the country may be eligible for ad-hoc disaster payments even if a loss was not experienced on the farm. Under crop insurance programs a farmer must suffer a financial loss, relative to the insurance guarantee, to qualify for indemnification  – commonly known in insurance principles as a deductible. This ensures that indemnity payments are targeted to areas impacted by a natural disaster such as a drought, hurricane or flood, and that payments are delivered directly to farmers and ranchers impacted by adverse weather….

At a time when net farm income is at a 12-year low, and after farm programs have already experienced substantial cuts in recent years, now is not the time to turn away from the reliability of the crop insurance program in favor of ad-hoc disaster payments. When Mother Nature is the farmers’ business partner, access to affordable and dependable insurance products remains a critically important component to the financial stability of farmers and the U.S. farm economy.

In other words, “Do no harm to crop insurance in the 2018 Farm Bill.”