President Obama unveiled his plans to tackle the federal deficit Monday. One of the ways the administration will confront the federal deficit is by making changes to the overarching agricultural infrastructure of the nation. Obama is looking to provide farmers with a $5 billion annual subsidy that will help them regulate the price of crops and purchase crop insurance in order to guard against natural disasters. This will remove the direct payment structure that has been in place in the industry since 1996, however, a move that has garnered a…
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Agriculture groups seek more protections against severe weather with insurance safety net
Extreme weather is presenting a unique and complicated problem to the nation’s farmers. With many decrying climate change as a scientific impossibility, famers have been left handling the issue of uncommonly severe weather without a place to put the blame. In fact, most farmers do not even mention climate change when discussing the issue, focusing their concerns more on the protection of their crops and mitigating any losses they experience. This has led to a rampant increase in demand for crop insurance throughout the nation. Crop insurance can help farmers…
Read MoreFarmers hope crop insurance will replace shrinking government check
The landowners and farmers who have traditionally relied on the receipt of a government check to help with their survival, regardless of the profitability of their farms, will soon be facing the shrinking or elimination of those subsidy checks. The congressional super committee responsible for designing the fall plan for dramatically reducing the federal budget is predicted to take aim at those subsidy payments. Lobbyists and other supporters of the farmers are struggling to develop a new and less expensive way to subsidize the farms and which would offer farmers…
Read MoreAgricultural groups support crop insurance, export promotion, and research
According to a North Dakota agricultural groups spokesperson, as the groups ready themselves for federal spending cutbacks, the next federal farm bill’s top priorities should be crop insurance, export promotion, and research. State director for U.S. Senator John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Shane Goettle, explained that there will be fewer resources with which to work. He added that it is very important that they keep a steady communication regarding the farm bill’s priority as they will be responsible for deciding what will need to be cut and what must be maintained. Goettle…
Read MoreReinsurer takes on microinsurance project to provide drought insurance for Ethiopian farmers
Swiss Re, a global reinsure with a focus on risk transfer and asset management, is set to provide five years worth of reinsurance to a new microinsurance project in Ethiopia. The project was developed by the United Nations World Food Program, a branch of the U.N. that confronts worldwide hunger issues, and Oxfam America, an organization concerned with climate change adaptation, food security and aid reform. This project aims to provide Ethiopian farmers with drought insurance for their crops. Swiss Re will be funneling more than $1 million toward the…
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