Agroinsurance

Canada - 2016 AgriInsurance coverage to increase an average of 7%

AgriInsurance – a business risk management program supported by the Canada and Manitoba governments – announced on Tuesday that coverage will increase an average of 7% this year, while the average premium per acre will decrease by 4%. The federal and Manitoba governments are supporting AgriInsurance changes, giving producers higher coverage at a lower cost for 2016, Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay and Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development Minister Ron Kostyshyn said. AgriInsurance, administered through the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation (MASC), has been updated for 2016 based on producer feedback and market conditions, Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development said in a press release. Changes to programs for 2016 include: • AgriInsurance: * Due to higher average insured dollar values (prices) and probable yields, AgriInsurance coverage will increase an average of 7%, while the average premium per acre will decrease by 4%; • Grade guarantee for feed wheat * A grade guarantee for feed wheat has been added to protect against quality losses; • Vegetable acreage loss insurance program expanded * This program, which mitigates risks associated with vegetable production, has been expanded with the addition of four crops; • Pasture days insurance program expanded * Previously limited to 90 producers, this program has been expanded province-wide for the next three years, compensating livestock producers for pasture shortfalls and/or supplemental feeding; and • Wildlife damage compensation * After April 1, the maximum compensation value will increase for animals injured or killed by livestock predators. Additionally, the compensation for young animals will be revised to reflect what would have been the value of the animal at weaning weight, rather than at the time of loss. This year, MASC will provide an estimated $2.4 billion in coverage for 8,500 Manitoba farms. Under AgriInsurance, premiums for most programs are shared 40% by participating producers, 36% by the Government of Canada and 24% by the Government of Manitoba. Administrative expenses are paid 60% by Canada and 40% by Manitoba. “AgriInsurance stabilizes a producer’s income by minimizing the economic effects of production losses caused by natural hazards,” MacAulay said in the release. “The Government of Canada continues to work closely with Manitoba to help make production insurance affordable.” Kostyshyn added that “financial stability, especially during production shortfalls, provides an important level of support.” The latest announcement came a day after Kostyshyn said that MASC will be providing expanded hail insurance coverage. MASC’s hail insurance, which covers hail and accidental fires and is available to producers participating in AgriInsurance, has been expanded to include winter squash, pumpkins, peppers and leeks. As well, maximum coverage for strawberries has been increased to better reflect the associated cost of production, the minister said in a statement on Jan. 18. A new, one-time interest rate credit will also be available to cattle producers after April 1. Through MASC’s Stocker Loan program, producers financing feeder cattle will receive a credit of 0.25% if they also purchase a Western Livestock Price Insurance Program policy fully covering those animals. Source - canadianunderwriter.ca

USA - Nightshade, crop insurance on Idaho bean schools’ agenda

Several important issues facing Idaho’s dry bean industry will be discussed during bean schools in Nampa and Twin Falls Jan. 27-28. About 200 of Idaho’s estimated 500 dry bean growers typically attend the schools, which have been held in Southcentral and Southwestern Idaho every other year. An Idaho Bean Commission survey showed heavy support for holding them every year, and 2016 is the first time they have been held in consecutive years, said IBC Commissioner Don Tolmie. During this year’s schools, former IBC Executive Director Lacey Menasco will provide an overview of the USDA’s dry bean crop insurance policy. Menasco, a specialist with the USDA’s Risk Management Agency, said her presentation will include an overview of prevented planting guidelines, particularly those that relate to a lack of irrigation water. “That could be a big deal if there is a shortage of irrigation water” this year, she said. She will also discuss crop insurance changes in the 2014 farm bill, including new conservation compliance provisions. For example, in a change that took effect last June, farmers who grow on highly erodible land must have a conservation plan approved by and on file with the USDA to be eligible for crop insurance subsidies. The conservation plan requirement has always existed, “they just tied it to the crop subsidies,” Menasco said. A representative from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service will discuss options to meet the conservation compliance requirements, including cover crops and crop residues. University of Idaho weed scientists will discuss the results of field trials that are testing how effective the use of the Eptam 20G herbicide is in controlling nightshade, a troublesome weed that the IBC estimates costs the Idaho industry about $8 million annually. The IBC convinced Gowan Co. to resume producing Eptam 20G last year. Gowan had stopped manufacturing it in 2008 but many Idaho bean farmers say it’s their best option for controlling nightshade later in the season. UI Weed Scientist Don Morishita said initial field trials at UI’s Parma and Kimberly research stations two years ago definitely showed that Eptam 20G provided good later-season nightshade control. But there wasn’t enough nightshade pressure last year to confirm those trials. “We just didn’t have the (weed pressure) to tell us if it did or didn’t do a good job,” he said. Morishita said the trials will be repeated this year and UI researchers will focus on attempting to determine what influences the weeds to emerge from year to year so they can develop Eptam application recommendations for growers. The agenda includes presentations on the results of nitrogen fertility and fungicide studies as well as vole and mite control. The Twin Falls bean school will take place Jan. 27 from 8 a.m. to noon at the Red Lion Hotel. The Nampa school will take place Jan. 28 from 8 a.m. to noon at the Hampton Inn. Source - capitalpress.com

India - Farmers demand cover for crop damage by wild animals

Farmer groups have demanded that the recently announced Prime Minister Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) should cover the risks and crop losses inflicted by wild animals, such as elephants and wild boars, among others. These wild animals, mainly in peripheral areas of national parks and wild life sanctuaries, increasingly pose a risk to farmers around those regions. Farmers are inflicted with crop losses and other damages when herds of such animals occasionally stray from their habitats and enter farm lands, destroying the fields and plantations. PMFBY has excluded crop loss caused by wildlife from the ambit of the insurance scheme. Besides, crops grazed or destroyed by domestic and/or wild animals, losses arising from perils such as war and kindred perils, nuclear risks, riots, malicious damage, theft, and act of enmity, are all categorised under ‘exclusions’ in the new scheme. However, the new scheme proposes to provide comprehensive risk insurance to cover yield losses from non-preventable risks such as natural fire and lightning, storm, hailstorm, cyclone, typhoon, tempest, hurricane, tornado, floods, inundation and landslide, drought and dry spells, and pests and diseases, etc. “We want losses caused by wild animals to be covered under the scheme,” said TN Prakash Kammaradi, Chairman of the Karnataka Agriculture Price Commission. Presently, the local administration and the State governments occasionally extend some relief to farmers whenever they are impacted by such losses. Growers of cereals like paddy, horticulture crops such as banana and vegetables, and cash crops like sugarcane, apart from plantation crops (mainly coffee), are among the worst affected by straying wild animals. While there are no official estimates on losses inflicted by the wild animals, activists peg the losses at about a third of the output in the peripheries of such natural habitats. “About 30 to 35 per cent of the output gets impacted by wild animals, monkeys and birds in these regions,” said Kavita Kuruganti, Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA). Crop damages inflicted by wild animals is one of the biggest challenges faced, right from Uttarakhand to Kerala, Kuraganti said, adding that such risks and losses should be covered under the new crop insurance scheme. Source - thehindubusinessline.com

India - IIT-R develops satellite-based crop monitoring system, app

The Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT-R) claims to have developed a satellite-based online information system and mobile app for crop monitoring at district level in Uttarakhand. The electronics and communication engineering department of the institute, which developed the system, says that they may be able to extend the online platform country-wide in a year or more after uploading data from other states. "The online information system is called 'satellite-based agriculture information system' (SBAIS). The website will soon be in the public domain for general users," Dharmendra Singh, professor of microwave imaging & space technology and the principal investigator (PI) of the project, told TOI. The institute has also developed an app for mobile users to access the online information system. The state agriculture authorities have expressed satisfaction over the development of the online information system as it can allow them to inspect land for settlement of crop insurance claims. "To settle cases of crop insurance of farmers, we have to gather data from our personnel time to time but if entire information of vegetation in every district is available online, the actual damage would be assessed faster," said JP Tiwari, chief district agriculture officer, Haridwar. RailTel, a Miniratna enterprise of Government of India, has reportedly provided a funding of around Rs 80 lakh to the institute for the project. The institute has been working on the project for two years and has collected data on various agricultural factors beginning from 2011 and including all 13 districts of the state. The salient features of the project, under two main modules, are monitoring crop health district- and tehsil-wise, and image classification of vegetation of a particular area. Source - timesofindia.indiatimes.com

UK - Lurgan strawberry grower Fox faces £20k loss as floods swamp plant

Thousands of strawberry and lettuce plants damaged as a result of severe flooding in Northern Ireland are feared lost. Philip Fox grows strawberries for a number of outlets on his Foxberry Fruit Farm in Derrytrasna near Lurgan, but this year's crop is threatened by three feet of floodwater. He has 42,000 plants in the field which is submerged but the strawberry plants are above the water. However, they still might be lost as he cannot get near the plants to maintain them. Mr Fox said: "We cannot get to the plants to cut off all the brown and yellow leaves to let this year's growth emerge. "This is a routine task that must be done to reduce disease risk and should be carried out before the middle of January. "The field is under three feet of water. Some people have been out with a boat among the plants to survey the damage. "Lough Neagh is nearby and has shown record high levels of water this year. "We will lose over £20,000 if we cannot salvage the plants. It's a terrible situation and one that could prove very costly indeed." Mr Fox is not alone as the business next door has 70,000 lettuces currently under water. Derrylard Nurseries near Maghery grows salads for all the major supermarkets in Northern Ireland, and it is feared it could lose business as a result of the floods. Business owner Seamus Donnelly said: "We have around 70,000 lettuces in a polytunnel under water. I don't think they can survive the flooding which will cost us tens of thousands of pounds. "The plants and fertiliser costs us £70 per thousand plants and there is the additional cost of planting them to consider as well. "The bigger problem is that we could lose supply contracts with the supermarkets if we are unable to maintain a consistent supply to them. "Even if we go and buy more lettuce to supply the supermarkets, we could end up losing money. "We planted the lettuces in November and they were due for harvest in March but I am not sure if they will make it. It would be tough for them to survive. "As it was a mild enough winter the plants came on well in growth but now they are ruined. "The floods here are as bad as I have seen them. We have about 12 acres of plants in polytunnels and some of them are completely under water." Source - belfasttelegraph.co.uk

UK - Lancashire grower faces £230k losses after floods hit farm

A Lancashire farmer says he is not sure he can continue farming after the floods devastated his fields, causing £230,000 of estimated crops losses. Allan Butler said he feels like he has “worked all of his life for nothing” after losing 22ha of crops, worth an estimated £230,000. The NFU described Mr Butler’s situation at Causeway Farm in the leafy Lancashire village of Rufford as “heartbreaking” and “devastating” and said it was possibly the worst case of flooding to affect a farm business in the UK this winter. NFU North West spokesman Carl Hudspith said the union was urgently trying to assist Mr Butler and he called on the authorities and charities to offer him as much help as possible. “Farms in Cumbria and the North East have been hit badly, but it is over a wide area,” said Mr Hudspith. “But Mr Butler stands to lose more than any farm I have ever seen. He just does not know where to turn.” The flooding hell hit crisis point at Causeway Farm on Boxing Day after part of a river embankment along River Douglas, which protects the farm, gave way sending a wall of water pouring onto the land. The water penetrated through a 2m gap in the embankment. Dozens of acres of potatoes, cabbages and spring cabbages were left submerged under floodwaters more than 10ft deep in some fields. Mr Butler said he previously asked the Environment Agency to make sure the embankment was plugged with sandbags and other materials. In terms of turnover, he has estimated a loss of £48,000 of potatoes, £20,000 of cabbage and £160,000 of spring cabbage. “I’d usually harvest my potatoes in mid-December but struggled as my son had to have a hernia operation,” said Mr Butler, whose farm is close to the River Douglas. “Basically all of my cash crop was under water.” The crop losses, for which he was uninsured, have pushed his business to the brink of financial ruin. But if he continues to farm, he fears a similar flooding catastrophe will happen again. “What really worries me is the threat of the bank bursting again,” added Mr Butler. “For me personally how can I recover and begin to grow high value crops again without any protection and the very real threat of the bank bursting again within my lifetime? “I told the Environment Agency there was a problem with the embankment. It’s also breaking in other places. As a grower, I can’t move crops. If it were cows or sheep you might lose a few, but you wouldn’t lose everything.” Mr Butler said he did not know what the future holds, or even if he wanted to carry on farming. “I’m 56, I work stupid hours and I’ll end probably end up with a mortgage bigger than when I started out,” he said. “I never thought this would happen. There’s nothing I can do and everyone’s after me for money because they think I’m going bust.” NFU Lancashire county adviser Adam Briggs visited Mr Butler’s farm to see the devastation himself. He said: “A great deal of the focus has been on the impact of the flooding on urban businesses. However we have seen a great deal of damage to farm and and the cost to agriculture will run into millions. “In west Lancashire horticulture is a major sector and employs thousands of people generating millions for the local and national economy. Just because the area flooded is not on hard standing ground does not mean that the economic impact of flooding is less devastating. “We need to find solutions which recognise the importance of farm land and protect it where necessary.” Source - fwi.co.uk

India - Crop insurance 2.0: More of the same old wine

Nearly a year after suffering sweeping backlash due to protests over its amendments to the land acquisition law, the NDA government is attempting to win back the hearts of the farming community. The Union Cabinet approved a new crop insurance scheme on January 13. According to the government, the 'Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana' is "a path-breaking scheme for farmers' welfare". But is it really so? So far, the government has announced only broad features of the scheme, which will be implemented in the Kharif season, beginning April. The biggest worry for India's farmers remain the lack of proper pricing. However, crop damage and faulty insurance schemes have also been a concern. The new scheme proposes small steps to correct that. Here's how this new crop insurance scheme tries to better the existing one: Sounds good? The National Commission on Farmers (NCF), also known as the Swaminathan Commission, had recommended in 2006 that crop insurance should be expanded to cover the entire country and all crops with reduced premiums. Obviously, the recommendation is yet to be accepted. It had also recommended considering the village as the unit for assessment of crop damage and not the block. That check-box has also not been ticked. Analysts have welcomed the intention behind the scheme, but with several red flags. The success of the scheme will be measured by the number of farmers voluntarily opting for it, said Ajay Vir Jakhar, chairman of Bharat Krishak Samaj. While it was a good step, details are awaited, he pointed out on Twitter. Few new solutions Like NCF, economist Amir Ullah Khan also thinks that crop insurance has failed by relying on group failure - crop damage at the block level. What happens now is that a farmer becomes eligible for insurance claim only if a crop fails for the whole area (gram panchayat/mandal/hobli/circle/phirka/block/taluka) in which he lives. This problem has not been addressed in the new scheme. Khan also pointed out that the scheme talks about direct transfer of funds into the bank accounts of the farmers. But less than 20% of the country's farmers have bank accounts. "How long will we treat the same problem with the same solution?" an unimpressed Khan asked. The only new thing in the scheme was subsidisation of premium but plenty of problems persisted, he said. His biggest problem with the scheme was that while the government claimed this was a big gift for farmers, on the ground the farmers suffer more from price fluctuations than crop failure. Nothing has been done to tackle that problem. Will only insurance firms gain? Agricultural analyst Devinder Sharma said while the intent behind this scheme was good, several challenges remain. To begin with, the differentiation in premium rates for Rabi and Kharif crops should have been done away with and a flat 1.5% rate for all crops should have been announced. According to Sharma, a bigger question left unanswered was how to assess crop loss. "The block-level assessment principle is faulty", he said, wondering why was the government reluctant to force companies to go for individual assessment? Also, though the use of technology was good, a photo taken with a mobile phone wasn't enough to assess the extent of crop damage, Sharma said. "Even drones can not. It has to be measured physically." Further, Sharma noted, if a farmer is a loanee, premium is automatically deducted from his account while there is no guarantee when will he receive the compensation. In most cases, the insurance company pockets 90% profit and this is only likely to increase. In the United States, firms selling agri-insurance make $1.5 on every dollar in premium. Are we too heading towards such a scenario where insurance firms will make good money while farmers will continue to struggle, Sharma asked. Risk prevention more important GV Ramanjaneyulu, executive director of Secunderabad-based Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, agreed that bringing down the premium burden on farmers and attempting to bring down the delay in receipt of compensation were good steps. However, he noted several lacunae as well. First, farm insurance has not been made universal: all crops and all areas have not been brought under the scheme's purview. Second, no step has been taken to ensure that the actual farmers are identified, especially a tenant farmer. Tenancy is not documented and therefore there is no written mechanism to identify a tenant farmer. "How will such a farmer claim compensation?" he asked. Ramanjaneyulu also noted that risky cropping patterns are being promoted these days: a classic example of which is cotton farming in water-scarce areas such as Maharashtra. With such clear risks, no amount of insurance schemes will be able to help farmers until risk reduction and risk prevention is made the priority. Damage assessment still challenging He also subscribe to the view that the village, not the block, should be the unit of assessment for crop damage. Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, the farmers' body of Rahstriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Bharatiya Janata Party's ideological cousin, welcomed the lowering of the premium and the passing of a share of the burden onto the insurance company. The outfit did have some grievances though, which it presented diplomatically. General Secretary Prabhakar Kelkar told Catch that despite the use of technology, assessment of crop loss would still be a challenging task - that's where most of the corruption was. "The existing system, where the patwari (revenue official) assesses the damage, has become irrelevant and we have been demanding that the assessment be done in the presence of panchayat members or respected elders of a village," he said. "We have also been demanding that a helpline be established and its number be well-publicised. Farmers would call for guidance regarding crop loss and compensation." Kelkar also supported the need for the universalisation of crop insurance, saying "ek fasal, ek khet, ek vyakti" (One crop, one field, one individual) is an old slogan of theirs. "After all, its called crop insurance and not field insurance." Kelkar too agreed that less than 35-40% farmers have access to banking services and more will have to be connected to banks quickly. He also admitted that the biggest problem for farmers was getting a price comfortably above the input cost. Problems remain Agrarian crisis is an octopus with many tentacles. Fighting it needs a multi-pronged strategy and in that respect, this new scheme is welcome. But its arrival and the accompanying pomp and show also make one fear that the government is attempting an eyewash. Having admitted before the Supreme Court that it can not provide 50% profit over the cost of production to farmers, as promised in the BJP's manifesto, is Modi sarkar taking the farmers for a ride? Source - catchnews.com

Canada - A whole-farm approach

If you think the future of government support for agriculture lies in doing more of the same but only better, you’ll get little comfort from Manitoba’s Agriculture Risk Management Review Task Force report released last week. The 25 recommendations and the supporting appendix report should also make you a little uncomfortable if you think the way we farm in this province is just fine the way it is. That’s not to say there aren’t some encouraging recommendations, starting with an acknowledgment that governments have a role in helping farmers insure against increased weather risks from climate change. There is also recognition of the need for publicly supported research and extension. But there is no solace to be found in the findings of two independent studies on how climate change may affect the actuarial soundness of current government programs. Those reviews of the AgriInsurance program were conducted by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). They found “… that the average annual deficit for the program (extent to which payouts exceeded premiums paid by both producers and government) remained similar when the results for the historic period were compared to the future climate change scenarios,” says the appendix report prepared by Darren Swanson of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). “In fact, the deficit declined slightly with climate change, in part owing to lower average yields and therefore slightly lower exposure.” That’s right, lower average yields. We all know the danger of using averages as a guide. Some farmers in 2011 suffered “weather whiplash” — too much moisture in the spring and drought later in the year. Overall precipitation may have averaged out, but the effects on farmers’ bottom lines were pretty extreme. Not surprisingly, this report places the front-line responsibility for adapting to climate change squarely onto farmers and points out that government’s role through insurance is to share risk, not compensate, and that programs should inspire innovation by encouraging best management practices. We see references to “empowering” farmers to take ownership of their own business risk management. And there is this statement in the appendix report in reference to the 2011 study by the OECD: “Reducing the role of the government in risk management is a first step in allowing proactive approaches to risk management to emerge.” It points to the New Zealand crop insurance experience: “production intensity, development of new/marginal lands, fertilizer use and cropping of high-risk land all decreased when subsidies were eliminated.” That was considered a good thing. The supporting documents suggest the biggest risk to governments is to offer programs that mask incentives for farmers to change how they operate in order to reduce their own exposure. “There is a need to develop and expand alternate cropping options that could counteract adverse climatic conditions. It was noted that uptake has been painfully slow, but there are existing options and existing models for alternate production practices that can mitigate the impact of severe climatic shifts,” the task force reports. “Examples include intercropping, crop rotations that include nitrogen fixation plant species, perennial cereal varieties, and organic production.” As well, these options are poorly supported within current business risk management programs. “As these options become further advanced and available, business risk management (BRM) programming needs to evolve and support these options; certainly the BRM options must not discourage these new and different production modalities.” The 2011 OECD study concluded: “The major policy challenge in Canada is to maintain farmers’ incentives to proactively develop risk management strategies and improve the targeting policies to income risk… In most cases, this means that the government should do less rather than more, and do it more simply.” Hence, the task force recommendation that the province explore the introduction of whole-farm revenue insurance as a replacement for AgriStability. It is seen as a means of reducing program exposure and keeping the premiums farmers pay within reason. Insurance under a whole-farm approach would be based on the farm’s total revenue, not on a crop-by-crop basis. That is expected to foster diversification, a form of self-insurance. Considered in their entirety, the recommendations imply that the production culture that has been fostered within agriculture — and heartily embraced by farmers — faces a fundamental shift. It also suggests that the best way for government to help farmers adapt to climate change — is to help a little less. Source - manitobacooperator.ca

USA - Emergency farm loan applications being accepted

Applications for emergency farm loans for losses caused by the severe storms, tornadoes, straight-line winds and flooding are being accepted at the Farm Service Agency (FSA) office located in Stephenville, Cynthia P. Kinser said today.Somervell County is one of 75 in Texas recently named by Secretary of Agriculture Tim Vilsack eligible for loans to cover part of actual production and/or physical losses resulting from the severe storms, tornadoes, straight-line winds, and flooding.Mrs. Kinser said farmers may be eligible for loans of up to 100% of their actual losses or the operating loan needed to continue the agricultural business, whichever is less. For farmers unable to obtain credit from private commercial lenders, the interest rate is 3.625%.“As a general rule, a farmer must have suffered at least a 30 percent loss of crop production or suffered any physical loss to be eligible for an FSA emergency loan under this disaster designation”, Mrs. Kinser said. Producers participating in the Federal Crop Insurance program will have to consider proceeds from those programs in determining their production loss. Additionally, any insurance proceeds received by producers as a result of the physical loss will have to be considered in determining their total loss.“Applications for loans under this emergency designation will be accepted until August 25, 2016, but farmers should apply as soon as possible. Delays in applying could create backlogs in processing, with possible delays into the new farming season”, Mrs. Kinser said.FSA is a credit agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is authorized to provide disaster emergency loans to recognized farmers who work at and rely on farming for a substantial part of their living. Eligibility is extended to individual farmers who meet U.S. citizen requirements and to farming partnerships, corporations, or cooperatives in which U.S. citizenship requirements are met by individuals holding a majority interest.The FSA office in Stephenville is open from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm Monday through Friday. Source - yourglenrosetx.com

India - Climate change causes mango crop losses

In Uttar Pradesh, northern India, unusually warm weather in December, related to El Nino, has caused mango trees to flower early. Now growers fear that the fall in temperatures witnessed lately will hit crops meant for the summer market, as flowering mango trees need consistently warm weather to fully ripen. Coupled with the earlier warm winter, the expected sudden drop in temperature has added to the problems for mango growers. "This in turn has led to the mango malformation disease hitting the flowers across Uttar Pradesh," said Anirudh Dubey, agro-meteorologist at Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur. Mango cultivation in UP is concentrated in two belts: northern belt (spanning Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Bagpat, Meerut, Jyotiba Phule Nagar and Bulandshahr) and central belt (comprising Hardoi, Sitapur, Barabanki, Lucknow, Unnao, Pratapgarh, Varanasi and Faizabad). The Maal-Malihabad-Kakori belt alone contributes at least 30 to 40% of the state's annual mango production. Inseram Ali, president of the Mango Growers' Association of India, said that the government had not extended any kind of help to mango growers. "While other farmers have been compensated for the loss, people dependent on the mango trade, right from growing till selling the crop, have not received any compensation," he said. "There has been a loss but it's difficult to say anything about the exact impact at this stage," said Vikram Singh, a mango farmer in Agra, adding that prices in summer will certainly go up if supply falters. Last year, the state produced 44 metric tonnes of mango which cost Rs 40-70 per kg at retail prices. This year, if the production is hit, the mangoes will cost Rs 10 to Rs 15 more per kg at the very least. (1 Indian Rupee= 0.015 USD) Source - freshplaza.com

USA - Whole Farm Revenue Protection sees changes for 2016

A good thing — the Whole Farm Revenue Protection program — has gotten even better in 2016, crop insurance agents and others say. “We think it will be an improved program,” said James Robinson, research and policy associate with the North Carolina-based Rural Advancement Foundation International. Robinson was among the presenters in a Jan. 11 webinar hosted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency, the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute and the Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service. The presentation examined how Whole Farm Revenue Protection can benefit any farmer, not only organic producers. “This is a very important program,” said Margaret Krome, policy program director for the Wisconsin-based Michael Fields Agricultural Institute. A key feature of the program, known as the “commodity count,” is that federal subsidy is tied to the number of different commodities that a producer grows, says Roxann Brixen, a Wisconsin-based agent for Great American Insurance, who spoke during the webinar. The more crops producers grow, the larger the subsidy they might receive, she said. Ag producers have other crop insurance options, including multi-peril crop insurance, or MPCI, and the noninsured crop disaster assistance program, or NAP. But while MPCI and NAP can be useful for many producers, there are limitations in value for some farmers, Robinson said. Whole Farm Revenue Protection gives more options for diversified, organic and specialty crop producers, who experts generally say were underserved by existing crop insurance in most parts of the country. So, the 2014 farm bill directed the Risk Management Agency, which administers the federal crop insurance program, to develop programs that support farm diversification. Whole Farm Revenue Protection provides a risk management safety net for all commodities on the farm under one insurance policy and, for the first time in 2016, is available in all counties nationwide. Other changes for 2016 include: Expanding farm operations can qualify for as much as a 35 percent increase in coverage. New recordkeeping aids are available online. Producers with as much as $1 million in expected revenue from animals and animal products might qualify. Beginning farmers and ranchers might need fewer years of tax records to qualify. Crop insurance is sold and delivered only through private crop insurance agents. Source - http://www.agweek.com

Philippines - Crops, livestock losses due to dry spell now P17.6M

CROP losses and livestock deaths caused by the persistent dry spell in Negros Occidental have reached almost P17.6 million, latest reports released by the Capitol showed Monday. The dry weather in the province is caused by the El Niño phenomenon, which the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) forecasts to last until the first half of the year. A progress report of the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) showed P17.285 million in crop losses, covering 909.49 hectares of palay, high-value commercial crops (HVCC), and corn, affecting 886 farmers in 24 barangays of Hinigaran and Hinoba-an towns. In Hinigaran, 12 barangays are affected composed of 302 rice farmers in 282.67 hectares, with a total damage of P11.1 million; 24 HVCC farmers in 5.32 hectares, P838,086; and three corn farmers in 2.3 hectares, P234,600. Twelve barangays in Hinoba-an posted crop damage worth P5.56 million. The figure covers 557 rice farmers in 619.2 hectares. Most of the affected rice farms are situated in rain-fed areas, report added. Dina Genzola, senior agriculturist of OPA, said the Provincial Government is urging farmers to avail themselves of the crop insurance program to augment and lessen possible crop losses due to the dry spell brought by El Niño. Genzola said that under the Negros First Universal Crop Insurance Program (NFUCIP), claims worth P17, 000 per hectare of damaged farms are provided to enrolled and insured farmers. Aside from crops, the prolonged dry weather has also caused damage worth P345,400 in livestock and other animals in the province. The Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO) reported Monday an animal mortality valued at P326,200 and daily egg production losses worth P16,200. The mortality covered 12 free-range chicken, 21 pekin duck, 52 layers, and 4,320 broilers. As of Monday, January 18, 14 animal raisers from five local government units, including Bago City, Cadiz City, Valladolid, San Enrique, and Hinigaran were affected. ‘Don't waste water’ Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. appealed to Negrenses not to waste water amid the continuous dry spell in the province. “We should pray for rains,” the governor said, adding that farmers should share water with each other. Marañon said that as part of mitigating measures, the province has acquired water pumps. He added that the Provincial Government is not keen on conducting cloud-seeding operations due to high expenses but low effect. Source - sunstar.com.ph

India - Tech content key to crop insurance scheme

For Indian farmers, the benefit from the new crop insurance scheme would be tied to the level of technology insurance companies build into their offerings, say government and industry experts. The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, which the government has described as "a path breaking scheme for farmers' welfare", needs high tech content to make a difference on a substantial scale for the farmers when they face a crisis, they said. "The companies have been given a larger (national) canvas to draw on," said K N Rao, chief risk officer of International Reinsurance and Insurance Consultancy & Broking Services (IRICS), Mumbai. But they need to assure genuine farmers that the level of documentation will be minimal. The larger canvas makes possible a larger premium income for the companies and the use of technology will ensure a tight but fair claim ratio for the farmers. Reinsurance companies had over the years shied away from crop insurance due to its adverse claim ratio. The lack of reinsurance cover, has in turn, limited the ability of the insurance companies to sell crop insurance to farmers. What the government is offering farmers is a simple product viz an insurance to cover their losses when their crops fail. The premium so far being paid by the farmers has been halved. For the rest, each state government will write a cheque and keep an open door to ensure that the largest cohort of farmers joins. One of the problems in the existing crop insurance schemes is that companies need a declaration from farmers saying that they intend to sow a particular crop and show evidence that they have a stake in the farm - either as a tenant or owner. But the process of certifying those documents from district offices makes smaller farmers avoid taking out the insurance. Frauds are not uncommon in this sector, which Rao said can be cut down by a strategy as simple as taking digital photos of the farmers with the land they have sown as record. The crop insurance scheme is a part of four recent insurance covers conceptualised by the government instead of the Insurance Regulatory Authority of India. For all the schemes, the states offer bids for the public and private sector insurance companies to run, via a tender. Since the total premiums are sizable, companies have bid aggressively for them but made for these tenders. The other three are Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), Prime Minister Jeevan Jyoti Yojana and Prime Minister Jeevan Saral Yojana. RSBY, for instance, is under revision due to some of these concerns. Jeetu Nayyer, a former officer of one of the government- run general insurance companies and chief of Amicus Brokers, nevertheless described the Cabinet decision as a brave one. "It takes the crop insurance cover to pretty near universal coverage," he said. "It needs the government to push the product through non-banking channels. Since there is a fear of high loss insurance companies restrict it to only those farmers who take out a loan from the banks," he added. Nayyer also said that for the agents to step out of the banks, technology can be a big help. A release issued after the meeting of the Union Cabinet acknowledged the critical role technology will play to make the scheme work. "The use of technology will be encouraged to a great extent. Smartphones will be used to capture and upload data of crop cutting to reduce the delays in claim payment to farmers. Remote sensing will be used to reduce the number of crop cutting experiments," the release said. Rajeev Chaudhary, chief risk officer at government-owned Agricultural Insurance Company of India, said that while he did not expect satellite imaging to do away with crop cutting altogether to establish losses, larger use of digital data will certainly do away with the role of patwaris and junior district level officials to use their discretion at the time of loss. Eleven general insurance companies including Agricultural Insurance Company of India are expected to bid for the market that generated a premium of about Rs 5,000 crore in FY 15. The market could double in a year, averred both Chaudhary and Rao. An insurance regulatory official said that states must insist on high technology content when they negotiate the premium rates with these companies. "Otherwise the insurance companies will try to minimise their liability by limiting their losses as has happened with the weather insurance cover which has been a non starter," he said. The regulatory official added that they would encourage the states to make the loss assessments at the village level. "When companies deal with insured, often the small farmers are unable to negotiate. This makes for a lot of rejection of claims,'' he said. Source - business-standard.com

Canada - Rethinking crop insurance in face of climate change

The notion that society should share the risks inherent to farming in an environment as unpredictable as the Prairies is deeply embedded in Canadian farm policy. Farmers have been able to buy government-subsidized crop insurance in some form since the federal Prairie Farm Assistance Act was passed in 1939. But the model in use today, in which the cost is shared equally between farmers, the province and the federal government, first came into being in the late 1950s. Of all the farm support programs that have come and gone during the decades, insurance has remained relatively intact. However, the way in which that support is offered could be in for some changes as governments consider their exposure as climate change risks making farming even more unpredictable. The Manitoba government recently completed a task force review of agriculture risk-management programs and came up with 25 recommendations for how programs should be structured in the future. Taken as a whole, the report should make people who think government support for agriculture lies in doing more of the same, but only better, a little nervous. It implies the way we do farming here faces fundamental changes. That's not to say there aren't some encouraging recommendations, starting with an acknowledgement governments have a role in helping farmers insure against increased weather risks from climate change. There is also recognition of the need for publicly supported research and extension. However, some specific programs, such as excess moisture insurance, and AgriStability, which insures revenue, could become too costly for both farmers and taxpayers under various climate change scenarios. Not surprisingly, this report places the front-line responsibility for adapting to climate change squarely on farmers and points out that government's role through insurance is to share risk, not cover it completely. It suggests programs should inspire innovation by encouraging best management practices, perhaps even tying the two together. We see references to "empowering" farmers to take ownership of their own business risk management. And there is this statement in the appendix report in reference to a 2011 study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development: "Reducing the role of the government in risk management is a first step in allowing proactive approaches to risk management to emerge." The supporting documents suggest the biggest risk to governments is to offer programs in such a way that they mask incentives for farmers to change how they operate in order to reduce their own exposure. "There is a need to develop and expand alternate cropping options that could counteract adverse climatic conditions. It was noted that uptake has been painfully slow, but there are existing options and existing models for alternate production practices that can mitigate the impact of severe climatic shifts," the task force reports. "Examples include inter-cropping, crop rotations that include nitrogen fixation plant species, perennial cereal varieties, and organic production. "As these options become further advanced and available, business risk management programming needs to evolve and support these options; certainly the business risk management options must not discourage these new and different production modalities," the report says. Hence, the task force recommendation that the province explore the introduction of whole farm revenue insurance as a replacement for AgriStability. It is seen as a means of reducing taxpayer exposure and keeping the premiums farmers pay within reason. Insurance under a whole-farm approach would be based on the farm's total revenue, not on the current crop-by-crop basis. That means that if one part of the farm enterprise performs well, it will counter lost revenue from sections that underperform. That approach would foster diversification, which is a form of self insurance. Considered in their entirety, the recommendations imply the resource-dependent production culture that has been promoted in agriculture and heartily embraced by farmers may not be the way of the future. It also implies one of the best ways for government to help farmers adapt to climate change -- is to help a little less. Source - winnipegfreepress.com

Philippines - Rice crop losses surge to P16.7M

RICE crop damage and production losses caused by continuous dry spell in Negros Occidental have reached almost P16.7 million, based on the latest report of the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) released Friday. The prolonged dry weather in the province is brought by persisting El Niño phenomenon, which the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) forecasts to last until the first half of the year. The OPA report showed that P16.667 million in losses covered 901.87 hectares of farmlands, affecting 859 rice farmers in 24 barangays of Hinigaran and Hinoba-an towns. An earlier report showed that in Hinigaran alone, the dry spell has caused P10.6 million worth of palay production losses and P4.045 million worth of damage to crops. The figures covered 282.67 hectares and affected 302 farmers who are mostly planting in rain-fed areas. Crop damage takes into account seedlings to mature palay. Production losses include reproductive to mature palay, the report added. Segregated by crop development, 224 farmers have reproductive-stage palay; 71 farmers, vegetative stage; six, maturity stage; and one farmer still growing seedlings. Dina Genzola, senior agriculturist of OPA, said that as assessment and validation of farms in other local government units continue, damage estimates may still increase. Genzola said the province is also identifying farmers who are covered by the Negros First Universal Crop Insurance Program (NFUCIP). Under the program, enrolled and ensured rice farmers may avail of the P17,000 claims per hectare of farms damaged and affected by dry spell, she added. Aside from crop damage and production losses, the dry spell has also affected the water level within the Bago River Irrigation System. The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) Provincial Office based in Bago City has recently recorded a drop of 40 centimeters in the water level. The diversion dam that forms part of the irrigation system has a depth of 52 meters. As of January 13, the water level was at 51.5 meters. According to Pagasa, dry spell occurs during three consecutive months of below normal rainfall conditions with 21 to 60 percent reduction, or two consecutive months of way below normal rainfall conditions with more than 60 percent reduction. Drought means three consecutive months of way below normal rainfall condition with more than 60 percent reduction, or five consecutive months of below normal rainfall at 21 to 60 percent reduction. Source - sunstar.com.ph