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Federal Crop Insurance Workshops for Socially Disadvantaged and Historically Underserved Producers

Hunter Biram, Brian Mills, Ryan Loy, IvaNelle Meyer, and Ronald Rainey

Summary

This project provides technical assistance and outreach for federal crop insurance to socially disadvantaged and underserved producers. Target audiences include social minorities, young and beginning farmers and ranchers, and retiring farmers and ranchers. A total of five workshops across Arkansas and Mississippi were organized in conjunction with the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, University of Arkansas at Monticello, and Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation. A crop insurance library consisting of 11 different fact sheets was written and later compiled into a workbook, which also includes practice problems to help producers assess and retain knowledge from the workshops. The workbook, named the Fundamentals of Federal Crop Insurance, was written and produced by agricultural economics faculty at the University of Arkansas and Mississippi State University and was provided to all workshop participants. In addition to the workbook, three different decision tools were created using R Shiny Apps to empower producers to make a confident decision as to their optimal crop insurance coverage. Pre- and post-workshop assessments were given to measure the effectiveness of the workshops and to solicit feedback for future workshops across the midsouth Delta region. Key takeaways and reflections from the organization of the workshops, the production of the Fundamentals of Federal Crop Insurance workbook, and interactions with producers will spur conversation among meeting participants.

Details

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