A new survey shows a strong level for crop insurance among farmers across the country growing a diverse set of crops. It also demonstrates opposition to any legislative proposals that weaken this risk management tool.
The Crop Insurance Professionals Association (CIPA), which conducted the survey, sought the opinion of farmers to better understand the importance of the program.
“We set out to have clear, concise, straightforward questions to farmers: Do you like crop insurance, how do you use crop insurance, what’s important about it for you,” said Ruth Gerdes, an agent from Auburn, Neb. “The response was, frankly, overwhelming.”
More than 1,300 farmers and ranchers growing more than 20 crops in 26 states responded to the survey, according to Farm Policy Facts.
“It is significant when you have well over 90 percent, upward of 97 percent of respondents, saying crop insurance is everything to them,” Gerdes said.
Among the results:
• 96 percent oppose funding cuts to crop insurance like the one recently proposed in the White House’s FY2017 budget request;
• 97 percent oppose reopening the 2014 Farm Bill to change crop insurance;
• 94 percent oppose the AFFIRM Act, a legislative proposal introduced last year to reduce crop insurance benefits and limit coverage options;
• 97 percent prefer that crop insurance be administered by the private sector instead of the government;
• 93 percent said their banks demand crop insurance coverage before extending needed operating capital; and
• 99 percent agreed that current low commodity prices and extreme weather make crop insurance coverage and the farm bill a necessity.
“This survey reinforced what we hear in the field,” said William Cole, an agent from Batesville, Miss. and the current chairman of CIPA. “It demonstrates the need to keep crop insurance affordable and available to a broad and diverse set of farmers across the country.”