Agroinsurance

Ireland - Winter storms have caused significant losses to crops

Winter crops had a fantastic start last autumn, but a series of winter storms have caused significant losses, according to Teagasc’s latest crop update. It says an estimated 500ha has been lost from salt burn along the south coast while many fields have bare patches as a result of water-logging and reduced plant counts compared to 2015. Meanwhile, Teagasc says the current estimates for 2016 winter crops are: Wheat (60,000 ha) Barley (75,000 ha) Oats (12,000 ha) Rape (7,000 ha). Advanced barley is at gs 25-29; wheat at gs 22-24 while advanced oat crops are at stem extension (gs 30). Almost no field work has been carried out since November and growers need to plan work to make best use of dry spells when they arrive. Low profitability is the main concern for arable growers and the whole industry at present. Teagasc strongly urges growers to complete financial analysis before drilling land this spring. Virtually no spring crops have been drilled to date. Teagasc Crop Update Photos Of The Moment Winter Wheat The area of winter wheat is estimated to be 60,000 ha in 2016, up slightly from the 55,000 ha in 2015. Most crops are tillering (gs 22 to gs 24) with normal disease levels for the time of year. Initial plants counts indicate that crops have lost plants and/or tillers over the winter period. Winter Barley The area of winter barley is estimated to be close to 75,000 ha, an increase of about 7% compared to 2015. Crops on heavier land have suffered from the prolonged wet spell over the past three months with plant death, tiller loss and severe yellowing of foliage. Further south a number of crops have been lost to salt burn due to wind blow off the sea. Crops are no more advanced than normal despite the good growing conditions last autumn. Most crops are at mid to end of tillering stage (gs 25-29). Disease levels (rhyncho and net blotch on 2 row barleys and rust on 6 row barleys) are building in many crops with action necessary shortly. Winter Oats Winter oats area is estimated at 12,000 ha. Crops have generally overwintered well with good plant stands and low disease levels. Most crops are at or approaching gs 30. Crops drilled before mid-October are very advanced. Winter Oil Seed Rape Excellent establishment and good growth over the autumn has resulted in well-structured crops. However a number of issues such as delayed weed control and heavy pigeon grazing are a feature in crops Pigeon grazing has been quite severe with parts of fields almost totally bare. Post-emergence herbicides were delayed (due to wet and very mild weather) and were only applied in January. Disease levels are high with Light Leaf Spot now widespread and it remains the biggest threat in crops. Beans The area of beans was 9,000 ha in 2015 and is likely to increase further in 2016 due to its competitiveness compared to spring feed cereals. Spring beans produced an exceptional national Spring beans produced an exceptional national yield of 6.7 t/ha (range 5.5- 9.0 t/ha) in 2015 due to the favourable growing season. Drill spring beans up to mid-March for top yields but watch sowing depth and crow damage. Spring Cereals The area of spring cereals, especially spring feed barley is likely to reduce again in 2016 due to low margins and the increased winter drillings. Growers are reminded to plan fertiliser and seed rate strategies before drilling commences. Predicted cereal crop margins for 2016 are significantly lower than 2015. Greening Update The Basic Payment scheme (approx. 70% of the total payment) and Greening (approx. 30% of the total payment) go hand in hand again this year. Both of these schemes are mandatory to ensure full payment. All applicants who are required to comply with greening have to make the application through the Department of Agriculture on-line system. There are no major changes in Greening requirements in 2016 Source - agriland.ie

Australia - Virtual reality next tech leap

A Tasmanian leader in the use of drones in agriculture says the next leap forward will be virtual reality technology. Bothwell grazier and mixed farmer Will Bignell runs DroneAg with Aerial Vision Australia’s Kyle Gardner. And while Mr Bignell said much of the agricultural drone work currently revolved around refining GPS technology, once twinned with virtual reality systems, the opportunities were enormous. Virtual reality technology would allow layering of data, which would be particularly helpful in opening up new ground. “If it’s land you have never cropped, there are wheel ruts, and drainage areas you can focus on,” he said. “It reduces that work load in winter and a lot of guys who have got us in have bought new farms, which they don’t know intimately.” “We are right on the cusp, as virtual reality technology gets a bit more affordable, and as it comes into the Iphone style space, that will really take off, for us.” He said he became involved with drones, after an earlier interest in radio controlled model planes. “As GPS technology became more affordable, we were in the right place, at the right time – we focussed on building products, rather than building drones,” Mr Bignell said. “The drone, to us, is just a platform to gather data.” DroneAg, a CASA approved operator of unmanned aircraft, specialised in precision agriculture. “Our aircraft can fly a variety of sensors which can be used to help assists farmers and agricultural consultants in improving or aiding their farm management decisions in a timely and cost effective manner,” a company spokesman said. “Our unique ability to design and build from the ground up aircraft which harmoniously match the needs and economic pressures of modern precision farming and the quality of data collected by the drones is one of our core strengths.” Mr Bignell said there were currently five pilots working for DroneAg, flying five to six machines, including a plan with a four metre wingspan with a four hour flight time. Initially, drones were being used in cropping “train” modelling and drainage work. “Over two days, we can do a 1000 odd hectare farm with a vertical accuracy of five to six centimetres, and left and right, on the ground, of about three centimetres,” Mr Bignell said. Ground mapping might show a gate was five metres away from where actually was, he said. “We are really focussed on getting that pulled together – and out of that we can do drainage modelling, drainage planning, pivot plans and farm safety stuff.” Drones were helping bring insurance premiums down, in the wine industry, as they could assist with accurate slope gradient maps. “When they induct drivers of grape bins, they can say ‘you don’t go up here with a loaded bin,’ – they show them the map, it sits in the tractor, and there, the insurance premium is brought down, because one of the biggest things is vehicle tip-overs, on steep slopes. “That sort of stuff is something we never saw coming.” Drones had also been used in trials of weed mapping, in the Coal River. But Mr Bignell said crop vigour mapping had not taken off as much as he would have expected. “I work with a company in Canada – we are both Colonials so we get on alright -we have a good old chat, globally, and are on the same page.” Mr Bignell said crop vigour mapping showed great potential. “Poppies can be worth sixty cents to a dollar per square metre, and to bring the drone in and map per metre, cost to 10-20 cents,” he said. And according to the latest Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research report one large segment of the agricultural robot market would be drones. The agricultural drone market had the potential to generate an additional 100,000 jobs in the U.S. and $82 billion in economic activity between 2015 and 2025, according to the report. But BofA Merrill Lynch anticipates that drones will see even more liftoff in the agriculture industry, predicting that 80% of the commercial market for drones will eventually be dedicated to agriculture. The report indicates that robots in the next 10 years could become the main workhorses powering farms, instead of people. Thermal imaging camera maker FLIR recently launched a camera specifically for drones that is intended to show farmers differences between healthy and distressed crops. The data collected can show farmers where to add or reduce water or pesticides, or help farmers determine when to harvest. “People in the U.S. and EU no longer want to work on farms due to factors such as low farm incomes, its lack of reliability and seasonal nature, and its demanding and risky nature,” the report states. “Today, less than 1% of the U.S. population claims farming as an occupation – with the average number of U.S. farmworkers having declined from 3.4 million last century to 1 million today.” [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="690"] AGRICULTURAL DRONES: A drone view of sheep in the yards at Kennedy Creek, Benalla, Vic.[/caption] Source - stockandland.com.au

USA - Johnson brother appeals fraud conviction

Aaron Scott Johnson of Northwood, N.D., a farmer convicted of defrauding the crop insurance program by purposefully damaging potatoes in storage, is appealing his conviction. Briefs are filed and an oral argument date has been tentatively set for the morning of March 18, for an Eight Circuit Court of Appeals. Attorneys have 15 minutes to argue their case. The courthouse is at 316 N. Roberts St., St. Paul, Minn. Johnson and his brother, Derek Johnson, on March 9, 2015, both were convicted in the case, and Aaron was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison for the fraud, and for making false statements to the government, and using the incident to Aaron claimed crop insurance losses between 2002 and 2006 and argued that damage was because of natural causes. (Derek, who had been living in Canada, did not appeal his 14-month conviction.) According to court briefs, public defender Sarah Yarney of Fargo will argue that the government's witnesses against Aaron were inconsistent and unreliable, and the conviction based on extremely limited, circumstantial evidence. Felon-witness Among other things, Yarney argued that Leo Borgen, a former hired hand who was a key witness, is a convicted felon who couldn't be trusted by either the Johnsons or the government. The Johnsons fired him, in part because of a sexual assault conviction, involving one of the farm's younger male employees. Aaron again will argue that the 2006 potatoes that were central to the conviction could have been tested for Rid-X, a chemical sewage treatment compound, but that the government investigators "stalled on the testing (or at least attempting to test) until there were no longer potatoes to test." They say Borgen was paid $1,200 as a government informant and was able to dismiss or avoid other charges in exchange for his cooperation. The appeal states Aaron did not obstruct justice in ways that should have enhanced his sentence. One enhancement related to his "vague comment about 'remembering who his friends are' does not amount to threatening, intimidating or unlawfully influencing a witness." If the fraud were true, they say the government's loss should have been calculated at $331,361, below a $400,000 level that triggered higher penalties. He ‘bragged’ Nicholas Chase, an assistant U.S. Attorney in Fargo, in his briefs on the case, argues the penalties were appropriate. "Aaron Johnson routinely and intentionally harmed his potato crops for insurance indemnities," Chase says. He says evidence shows they added rid-X, Flush, water and frozen potatoes, and "extreme heat" to the piles, "so the potatoes would rot." Among other things, there was an "unexplained existence of freeze damaged potatoes at the top of piles" and that Aaron made extraordinary of septic products. "Aaron Johnson himself fully corroborated Borgen's testimony because Aaron Johnson was so proud of himself that he bragged/confessed to various people that he had intentionally damaged his crops by exposing them to either the septic products or frozen potatoes," Chase writes. Source - agweek.com

USA - USDA expanding organic crop insurance

USDA announced Thursday it will give farmers transitioning from conventional to certified organic production the option of purchasing expanded crop insurance coverage. “Expanding the safety net for farmers wanting to enter the organic market ensures they have the tools and resources they need to meet this growing demand while protecting their operation,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said today. The organic sector, which boasts more than $39 billion in retail sales annually, has grown considerably in recent years as a result of high consumer demand. Some farmers have taken notice, particularly because certified organic products often fetch higher prices compared to conventional. Converting a conventional farming operation to an organic one takes a minimum of three years, however, and during that transition farmers are only able to insure their crops at lower, conventional crop price points. With today's announcement, that's changed. Transitioning farmers can now insure their crops at their contract price under the Contract Price Addendum instead of the published USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA) price election. A list of eligible commodities under the CPA is available here. In an email, Laura Batcha, CEO and executive director of the Organic Trade Association, told Agri-Pulse she was pleased with USDA's move. “It is not easy to transition to organic, and transitioning farmers should have a strong safety net,” she said. “This announcement is a small but important tool in what needs to be a full tool kit for transitioning to organic. We look forward to working with USDA to build out that tool kit.” USDA gave an example of how the CPA could benefit transitioning farmers. For instance, it said, a Nebraska farmer can use a contract price for millet up to a maximum of $7.34 per bushel for transitional or $8.44 for certified organic production, instead of using the existing RMA price elections of $3.67 for transitional or $4.22 for certified organic production. RMA also expanded organic premium price elections to 57 crops, including barley, rice and wheat. In 2017, the agency will add grapefruit, lemons and oranges to the list. To buy a new crop insurance policy or to change an existing policy's coverage level, producers will need to contact RMA before the appropriate sales closing date. Source - agri-pulse.com

South Africa: Grapefruit volumes almost halved due to hail and drought

Hoedspruit and Letsitele, where about 60% of South Africa's grapefruit is grown, is in a serious drought situation, to add to the woes of the growers the area was also hit by hail last November which has made predictions for the coming season even lower. Erwee Topham from Alliance Fruit said that some growers will see a total loss but the average will be around a 30-50% drop in volumes from the area. "The situation here is very serious, some growers have more water than others but in general water restrictions are at 30% in Letsitele and 60% in Hoedspruit. The lack of water had a negative impact on fruit set and size," he explains. Some older orchards have already been taken out to preserve water, while others have been cut down and painted white to save the trees for future years. "We only have around 8-10 weeks left of the summer rain season, if there is not some significant rain in this period then the dams won't have water for next year to set any crop," according to Erwee. "So far this year the Hoedspruit area has only had 14-25mm of rainfall which was two weeks ago and with daily temperatures between 35-42 °C we need some more rain for sure." The grapefruit harvest will start on time despite the drought which has brought other fruit crops on earlier, but grapefruit is one of the fruits which keeps on growing and if they can leave it a few weeks longer (water and temperature permitting) the fruit may be a size bigger. "I think we will start mid April as normal and continue through to the end of June, we will stretch it as far we can to help with the marketing. The sugar levels should be high and quality should be excellent," assures Erwee. Asia is known to demand bigger fruit and on grapefruit they prefer the medium to large sizes which won't be freely available this year, "China and Korea are paying a premium and fixed prices for those sizes so I would guess that those markets will get priority, Japan on the other hand does not feature significantly in our exports anymore, we have a decreasing trend like Florida with them. The exchange rate this year will make huge difference but that is the case for every country so I don't see much going to Japan, we are not focussing on Japan as the main market any more as it has not been a profitable market the past couple of seasons." Alliance Fruit will focus on China, Korea and the South Sea Islands and of course Europe, that still takes about 40% of our volumes. The European demand has steadied off after a few years of oversupply and according to Erwee there have been enough trees taken out and new markets developed in the last few years to make grapefruit profitable again. He adds that it is also not the most economical fruit to export as it is packed in big cartons only fitting a few on each pallet, logistically it is very expensive. Alliance Fruit's volumes will be down 30-40% on last year if we stay only with the same growers, but it seems to be the same for everyone up north, growers in the Eastern Cape do seem to have a better crop. Source - freshplaza.com

USA - Insure our food supply and our economy

If you have a car, you have auto insurance to protect against property and bodily harm. If you own a house, regardless of its size, you have insurance to guard against costly damage. Chances are good you have policies on your health and even your life, too. These forms of insurance are common, and as such, people have a high degree of familiarity with them. However, few people realize that the food on their table remains affordable thanks, in part, to insurance protection. Or that America’s food security is improved by insurance because it helps U.S. farmers manage risk. Crop insurance, which underpins the nation’s agricultural bounty, works like other kinds of insurance, and it is particularly important in a state like California that has such a diverse and thriving agricultural sector. In fact, for most fruit and vegetable growers it is the only safety net available. This insurance is what helped many California farmers bounce back after the recent drought and plant another year, just as it does following freezes and other natural disasters. The 2014 Farm Bill made big investments in making the system work better for specialty crop growers in states like California. For example, the new Whole Farm Revenue Protection policy enables a grower to insure his or her entire farm instead of having to buy individual policies for each and every fruit and vegetable planted. This new policy is not crop specific, and now crops like dates, spinach, melons, and other specialty crops may be insured if the producer has at least five years of history growing that commodity. Thanks to these investments, Californians now have $8.7 billion worth of crops protected on more than 6.8 million acres – including almonds, grapes, pistachios, walnuts, rice, and tomatoes to name a few. It’s no wonder then that the crop insurance industry chose the state as the site of its annual convention. This week, hundreds of agricultural and insurance industry leaders will be in Riverside County to discuss new developments in crop insurance protection and challenges agriculture will face in years to come. Chief among those challenges will be constant political attacks against farmers. Despite crop insurance’s risk-sharing structure that minimizes taxpayer cost, there are critics who want to undermine it and are floating proposals to cap coverage and publicly shame farmers, which would disproportionately hit specialty crop growers. But like other USDA programs, crop insurance needs to be widely available to protect all farmers, big or small, no matter what they produce. These attempts are particularly appalling in a region like the Coachella Valley, where agriculture is such an important economic driver and where the community does so much to aid the underprivileged through farm-to-table programs like Hidden Harvest. Agriculture’s opponents can be rebuffed if all of agriculture will pull together to defend its way of life. Coordination and communication will be key to confronting our critics, and ideas for working together and delivering a unified message to lawmakers will be our top priority at the annual meeting this week. Source - cropinsuranceinamerica.org

New Research Shows Earth’s Tilt Influences Climate Change

LSU paleoclimatologist Kristine DeLong contributed to an international research breakthrough that sheds new light on how the tilt of the Earth affects the world’s heaviest rainbelt. DeLong analyzed data from the past 282,000 years that shows, for the first time, a connection between the Earth’s tilt called obliquity that shifts every 41,000 years, and the movement of a low pressure band of clouds that is the Earth’s largest source of heat and moisture — the Intertropical Convergence Zone, or ITCZ. “I took the data and put it through a mathematical prism so I could look at the patterns and that’s where we see the obliquity cycle, that 41,000-year cycle. From that, we can go in and look at how it compares to other records,” said DeLong, who is an associate professor in the LSU Department Geography & Anthropology. With research collaborators at the University of Science and Technology of China and National Taiwan University, DeLong looked at sediment cores from off the coast of Papua New Guinea and stalagtite samples from ancient caves in China. DeLong’s data analysis revealed obliquity in both the paleontological record and computer model data. This research was published in Nature Communications on Nov. 25. The standard assumptions about how the variations in the Earth’s orbit influences changes in climate are called Milankovitch cycles. According to these principles, the Earth’s tilt influenced ice sheet formation during the Ice Ages, the slow wobble that occurs on a 23,000-year cycle as the Earth rotates around the sun called precession affects the Tropics and the shape of the Earth’s orbit that occurs on a 100,000-year cycle controls how much energy the Earth receives. “This study was interesting in that when we started doing the spectral analysis, the 41,000-year tilt cycle started showing up in the Tropics. That’s not supposed to be there. That’s not what the textbooks tell us,” DeLong said. This finding shows that the tilt of the Earth plays a much larger part in ITCZ migration than previously thought, which will enable climate scientists to better predict extreme weather events. Historically, the collapse of the Mayan civilization and several Chinese dynasties have been linked to persistent droughts associated with the ITCZ. This new information is critical to understanding global climate and sustainable human socioeconomic development, the researchers said. Additionally, climate scientists have begun to recognize that rather than shifting north and south, the ITCZ expands and contracts, based on this information. Source - lsu.edu

USA - Crop insurance industry faces continuing challenges

If one headline could summarize the challenges confronting the crop insurance industry in 2016, it might be “No Shortage of Critics,” lamented Mary Kay Thatcher, senior director for congressional relations with the American Farm Bureau Federation, in a speech to industry leaders today. As a result, it will be even more important for all sectors of the agriculture industry to work together and continue to educate lawmakers about the importance of crop insurance, she said. That includes the effort to “retie our relationships with some of the food groups” and avoid future attempts to split the farm bill between farm and food interests. Thatcher spoke to members of the Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau (CIRB) shortly after the release of three different critical reports from the some of the industry's traditional critics: The Environmental Working Group, the American Enterprise Institute and The Heritage Foundation. Although many farm organizations suggest they have already contributed to federal deficit reduction as part of the 2014 farm bill, Thatcher said there will be a continued focus on deficit reduction, and a primary target could be crop insurance premium subsidies. For example, earlier this week, President Barack Obama's budget proposal for USDA included a recycled plan to save about $1.26 billion on crop insurance in fiscal 2017. The proposed cuts would reduce premium subsidies for revenue policies that have a harvest price option (HPO) and eliminate buy-up coverage for prevented planting insurance. The cuts would save an estimated $18 billion over 10 years. In addition to the Obama administration, Thatcher believes there could also be a push to cut crop insurance from the 41 members of the House Freedom Caucus - which is a significant voting block among the 247 House Republicans. Did you know Agri-Pulse subscribers get our Daily Harvest email and Daybreak audio Monday through Friday mornings, a 16-page newsletter on Wednesdays, and access to premium content on our ag and rural policy website? Sign up for your four-week free trial Agri-Pulse subscription. She also encouraged CIRB members to build stronger relationships with members of the Senate, especially those who represent fruit and vegetable growing areas. “We only had 15 senators who voted consistently with us on all five of the key crop insurance votes,” Thatcher said. “Another five senators consistently voted against us.” “I don't think we've told our story to everyone we need to yet,” Thatcher added. Source - agri-pulse.com

Russia - Space Ensures Pay Rise to Farmers

New space-information systems of efficient insurance of government-subsidized agricultural lands will be developed in the Kuban region according to an agreement on scientific, technical and industrial cooperation signed between the region’s Ministry of Agriculture and the Scientific Industrial Trust Barl. According to a Ministry spokesperson, the new system will be based on the data received from the existing systems of remote probing of lands and on-land researches. It will improve the efficiency of the use of the state subsidies in the agricultural sector. First, the new space-information systems will be implemented in the framework of a pilot project. Then similar practice will be spread to a number of other Russian regions. The main advantage of the idea is that the use of space technologies in agrarian insurance will contribute to the improvement of mutual trust between the insurers and farmers when settling the losses. Besides, the new systems will make it possible to swiftly react to the weather changes and take urgent measures to lessen their negative impact upon the harvest. As a result, the hi-tech space support will help increase the resistance of agricultural productions to climatic changes and consequently growth of the yields. By the way. In 2015, the total cost of milk, meat and other stock-raising products manufactured in the Krasnodar region exceeded 90 bn rubles, or nearly 12 bn more than in 2014. Source - yugtimes.com

Philippines - Dry spell-hit farms in Negros under indemnity validation

ALMOST 1,493 hectares of farms in Negros Occidental damaged by the persisting dry spell are being assessed and validated by adjusters from the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC) to determine the amount of indemnity claim coverage. The farms belong to 1,178 farmers who are enrolled under the Negros First Crop Insurance Program (NFUCIP) of the Provincial Government and PCIC as its partner-agency, and have filed their respective notices of loss. Provincial Senior Agriculturist Dina Genzola said they are just part of the 7,041 affected farmers and fisherfolk in 6,122.38 hectares of farms and fish ponds in 134 barangays of 21 local government units (LGUs) in the province. Latest report of the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) showed that damage and production losses in rice, corn, high-value commercial crops (HVCC), and tilapia have already reached almost P214.94 million. The rice sector has the highest losses worth P209.94 million; corn, P3.09 million; HVCC, P916,086; and tilapia, P985, 250, the OPA report added. “The insurance program of the province provides claims worth P17, 000 per hectare of farm affected by calamities,” Genzola said, adding that insured farmers are expected to receive their respective claims 15 to 30 days after the validation made by the PCIC adjusters. Genzola said the amount of indemnity will be based on the value of agriculture inputs thus, damaged rice crops in the maturity stage may have higher claims than those in seedlings stage. “We continue to encourage local farmers to avail of the insurance program of the province to allay possible adverse effects of calamities like El Niño to crops,” she added. The enrolment premium per cropping season for NFUCIP is P840. Of which, only P340 is the counterpart of the farmer-enrollees while the remaining P500 is shouldered by the provincial government as loan. Source - sunstar.com.ph

India - PM to unveil Crop Insurance Scheme in MPs Sherpur

Prime Ministser Narendra Modi is scheduled to formally unveil the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana during a Kisan Kalyan Mela tomorrow in neighbouring Sehore Districts Sherpur. Mr Modi will reach Sehore town from Bhopal by helicopter in the afternoon and attend the programme from 1330-1430 hrs, an official statement said today. Union Agriculture Minister Radhamohan Singh is to deliver the welcome address. External Affairs and Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will address the event from 1338-1345 hrs and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan from 1343-1348 hrs. Mines and Steel Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Partys state President Nand Kumar Singh Chauhan will be present on the occasion. Soil Health cards shall be distributed and benefit of crop insurance for kharif-2015 given to peasants from 1348-1352 hrs. The Premier will present the Krishi Karman Award 2013-14 trophy to the Chief Minister; state Farmers Welfare and Agriculture Development Minister Gourishankar Chaturbhuj Bisen and the Chief Secretary. From 1352-1355 hrs, Mr Modi is to be conferred the Kisan Mitra and Kisan Hiteshi Samman by Mr Chouhan on behalf of Madhya Pradeshs farmers. The Premier will address the programme from 1355-1427 hrs. Mr Bisen is to propose a vote of thanks from 1427-1430 hrs. Mr Modi is scheduled to leave the venue at 1435 hrs by helicopter and reach Bhopal at 1505 hrs. Source - news.webindia123.com

India - Department of Agriculture may get 30% hike in FY'17 budgetary allocation

The Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC) is expected to get about 30 per cent higher budgetary allocation at over Rs 20,000 crore for the next fiscal for implementation of key schemes including newly launched crop insurance programme. Under the Union Agriculture Ministry, there are three departments -- Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC), Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries and Department of Agricultural Research and Education. DAC has received an allocation of Rs 15,500 crore for the current fiscal against budget estimate of Rs 16,646 crore. Sources said the DAC has sought over Rs 27,000 crore budget for 2016-17 fiscal keeping in view the implementation of major schemes, especially Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMSKY), Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojan (PMFBY) and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) and Krishi Unnati Yojana. "The agriculture ministry is pursuing with Finance Ministry to allocate more funds in order to achieve the desired growth. It is indicated that the plan budgetary allocation for DAC may cross Rs 20,000 crore in 2016-17 fiscal," the sources added. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will present the 2016-17 Budget on February 29. More funds are expected to be allocated for new crop insurance scheme, PMSKY and RKVY. However, the budget allocation for the Krishi Unnati Yojana (KUY) is expected to be lower at around Rs 7,000 crore in the 2016-17 fiscal, as against Rs 7,500 crore this year, they said. The KUY, which was launched in 2015-16 by consolidating various on-going schemes for better implementation, has sub-schemes like soil health management, horticulture, agriculture mechanisation, seeds and extension among others. The agriculture ministry has informed the finance ministry that any reduction in KUY would impact implementation of sub-schemes including soil health card programme, the sources said. Quick and efficient implementation of crop insurance and irrigation schemes are crucial as the country is reeling under back-to-back drought and facing challenges of climate change. Although agriculture contributes only about 13-14 per cent to the country's GDP, about 50 per cent of the population is dependent on the farm sector. Source - m.firstpost.com

USA - $32M paid out to local farmers: Crop insurance helps county residents prepare for upcoming season after devastating rainfall in 2015

Farmers in Jasper County have received more in crop insurance payouts within the past season than any other county in the state. Farmers were due this money after their crops suffered widespread damages due to torrential rains and flooding during May and June of last year. “We saw historic losses,” said local farmer and insurance adjuster Gary Fritts. “...I don’t expect that we’ll ever see damage like we saw this year again. We saw fields that were destroyed, not even harvested.” Read the full story in the print edition or by subscribing to the e-edition. Source - newsbug.info

India - Fertile ground for crop insurance

The Centre needs to expand irrigation coverage, give a big push to crop insurance and make agriculture remunerative, rating agency CRISIL has said. Ahead of the Union Budget proposals, it has also recommended extending the Direct Benefits Transfer scheme to food and fertiliser subsidies, and generating non-farm employment. Read our full coverage on Union Budget 2016 It says some broad areas require innovative policy solutions to restore the rural economy. Irrigation, it says, covers only 47 per cent of the country's cropped area, exposing the rest to monsoon shocks. Around 84 per cent of pulses, 80 per cent of horticulture, 72 per cent of oilseeds, 64 per cent of cotton and 42 per cent of cereals are cultivated without assured irrigation. The combined spending of Centre and states on irrigation has been two per cent annually of their total spending in the past five years - also less than the three per cent annually spent on this in the five preceding years. In the 2015-16 Budget, the government had allocated Rs 5,000 crore for micro-irrigation, watershed development and the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana. "Such spending needs to be encouraged and linked to employment generation. Focus on irrigation will require the government to deploy sustainable micro-irrigation schemes and creation of assets for rainwater harvesting and storage," CRISIL said. As for crop insurance, which got Rs 2,600 crore in 2015-16, it wants this raised. An Assocham-Skymet survey (April 2015) found only 19 per cent of respondents had their crops insured. The government recently launched the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, a crop insurance scheme, operational after April 1. Effective implementation will be key to meeting the target of 50 per cent coverage in the first two years. CRISIL says adequacy of coverage per farmer per crop will be critical to ensure its usefulness. Other challenges include ensuring the transparent assessment of crop damage within a specified time following weather shocks, and the ability to adequately compensate for the losses within the shortest possible time. The report also said the Centre should make agriculture profitable through easy availability of high-variety seeds at reasonable costs, reducing the cost of transportation, effective market pricing of produce, drought-proofing the sector by expanding irrigation cover and introducing the latest technologies. CRISIL said in many pulses crops, the difference between cost of cultivation and output price had widened. In urad (gram), for instance, while output prices in the past decade have risen by 12 per cent, cost of cultivation in major producer states are up by 12-26 per cent. Source - business-standard.com

USA - Marketing and Crop Insurance Can Complement Each Other

Will a weather event like drought impact crops somewhere in the world in 2016? If so it could be a turning point for corn and soybean prices, but weather certainly isn’t something to count on or plan for, according to one specialist. Chris Coffey is Assistant Vice President of Crop insurance for Farm Credit Mid-America, and he says drought is not very likely this year. “I’m not sure that I would be planning around a drought for this year seeing that we just had one in 2012. So maybe they need to look at their marketing plans and how that crop insurance will work with their marketing plan.” Coffey told HAT that producers need to know how to tie crop insurance and marketing together, and now is a good time to learn how. “We can sit down right now with a producer and give them a really close estimate of what their bushel guarantee is going to be for this year, and their revenue guarantee, which is going to allow them to make some more educated decisions. They’ll probably most of all feel more comfortable making those decisions this time of year vs. in August when we would normally send a schedule of insurance.” Could this be the year to make a change in crop insurance coverage? Coffey says his agents are trained in helping to answer those questions, and it’s all part of preparing now to be successful in 2016. “One of the biggest things right now would be sitting down and looking at what their coverage levels are and what their guarantees are going to be and making sure that is the right plan for this year because it changes every year and everyone thinks that their crop insurance is a lot of times easier to leave it the same. But you can change your plan and we have some customers that change it every year depending on that situation. So it may be the year to actually buy up. It depends on the customer’s situation but it may be the year to look at increasing coverage levels. One of the other things is again, being able to make a more educated decision on their marketing plan, and that’s critical this year.” He adds crop insurance is probably the most important tool in a farmer’s arsenal. “For the dollar amount that they’re going to be spending towards the crop insurance premium, there’s no other tool out there that they can use that will come close to protecting them like it will,” Coffey said. Source - hoosieragtoday.com