Economist Shares Crop Insurance Insight

By Erica Quinlan

AgriNews Publications

VERSAILLES, Ohio -- The 2018 farm bill, passed by Congress and signed by President Trump, now awaits implementation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other agencies.

The passage of the farm bill authorizes funding for many of the federal programs producers use throughout the growing season.

This bill is considered to be evolutionary, not revolutionary.

Keith Coble, agricultural economist at Mississippi State University, talked about crop insurance at the Farm Bill Summit in Ohio.

"It is an amazingly short list in terms of what I would define as big changes to the crop insurance program," he said. "I think the more relevant question is what didn't happen?"

What did not happen in the 2018 farm bill:

n Capping subsidy at $40,000.

n Applying AGI limits to crop insurance benefits.

n Removing or un-subsidizing the Harvest Price Option.

n Reducing subsidy percentages on crop insurance.

Coble discussed modern farm risk management at the event.

It's going to require an integrated approach, including financial management, cost control, integrated crop insurance and data and records for assessment.

He also shared five questions to ask your crop insurance agent:

1. May I qualify for trend adjusted yields?

2. May I qualify for APH yield exclusions?

3. What is the premium for different coverage levels?

4. What about separate coverage levels by practice?

5. What about enterprise units across county lines?

"We see a lot of flooding that has occurred in 2019," Coble said. "We've got a lot of rain. We may have some late planting in some regions of the country.

"There's also a lot of discussion about ad hoc disaster legislation. When I began working on crop insurance policy, the number one argument to enhance, build or add subsidy to the crop insurance program was to do away with ad hoc disaster bills.

"For several years, we didn't do ad hoc disaster bills. It looks like we're about to get back into doing (both) crop insurance and ad hoc disaster bills. I'm not sure that's good policy, but that's where we're heading."

View recordings from the summit online at https://ag.purdue.edu/commercialag/Pages/Programs/Farm-Bill-Summit.aspx.

Erica Quinlan can be reached at 800-426-9438, ext. 193, or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Quinlan.