1. Home
2. Conferences
3. 2020 Extension Risk Management Education National Conference

Insuring the Whole Farm Just Got Better

Jeff Schahczenski

Summary

As the result of the recently passed 2018 Farm Bill, the USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA) has significantly improved the Whole Farm Revenue Protection (WFRP) policy.

WFRP is the first nationwide agriculture insurance policy that provides substantial premium discounts for those who grow more than three crop or livestock products and is ideal for organic and sustainable farming operations.

The presentation will provide an overview of the WFRP policy history and the current recently implemented changes that have greatly improved this policy to serve a wide array of farmers and is available in every county in the United States.

One critical change has been to lessen the impact of historic high-levels of revenue variability that many farmers experience. These changes are modeled after the same adjustments in single crop revenue policies that cover most major commodity farmers. The difference is that the adjustments are made to historic revenue rather than the historic yields of a single crop being insured. Essentially this change will lower the deductible and improve protection of farm income.

The presentation will end with a brief discussion of research-based national policy recommendations to further improve this unique way to limit the revenue risk that all farmers face.

These important changes are the result in part of 14 years of reserach and education done by the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT). NCAT has continued its efforts to improve risk management options for farmers, most recently completing an extensive research project funded under the Organic Research and Extension Initiative (OREI) which is part of the National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) program.

The project, entitled “Is Organic Farming Risky?,” will be available for conference attendees and in part, forms, the basis of this presentation.

Details

---