Project Director: Jeffrey Cole – The Carrot Project/TSNE
Situation: There is a perception among underserved populations in the Northeast that the Federal Crop Insurance programs including Micro Whole Farm Revenue Protection crop insurance (mWFRP) doesn’t meet their needs, are too costly, or require too much paperwork. The target audience in this project were populations underserved by crop insurance in MA, RI, and CT. Participants included specialty crop and diversified growers, small farm producers, socially disadvantaged producers, women, and beginning producers who face the same production risks that all farmers face which include increasing severe weather events due to climate change. The underserved through crop insurance audience has historically been more vulnerable due to lack of crop insurance products suited to their operations.
Outcomes: This project led by Jeffrey Cole included education, training, and one-on-one business technical assistance (1:1 BTA) to support participants in considering and applying for RMA’s Micro Farm insurance program. The BTA also included resources on how to manage their record keeping in order to apply and submit a claim, information on tax implications, and education on alternative RMA and USDA risk management products. Through substantial education and marketing, this project helped the audience under-stand, access, and participate in the new mWFRP insurance through its thoughtful, flexible design, which recognized and responded to diverse producers’ varying education and support needs. The overall impact of this project was to increase farmers’ capacity to survive weather-related crop loss and failure which in return would result in a positive economic impact.
Impacts: The keys to success were using simple language in the materials and curriculum and providing multiple pathways to access them in order to make it as easy and convenient for farmers as possible. One producer improved their understanding of Micro Farm, assessment of its utility for farm risk management, and their ability to support other farmers to understand and apply for the program. Another farmer, who improved their understanding of Micro Farm through this project, concluded that it was not a good fit at the time. While there were multiple reasons, key amongst them were the record-keeping requirements and the amount of time required to generate those records. This circumstance reinforces that the work to improve farmers’ record keeping skills and practices is critical for increasing under-served producers’ participation in crop insurance and other risk management programs now and in the future. Because USDA continues to change risk management programs in an attempt to improve them it is most likely that the majority of farmers will continue to take a “wait and see” attitude when considering their risk management and insurance options. This means that the best support for farmers, especially underserved farmers, is that of continued education and support in getting their records in shape in preparation for applications and in conducting their individual cost/benefit analyses at any point in time they are motivated to do so.
“Through your
information on two
occasions I was able to
determine that I could
qualify and good to
know info as a woman
farmer. I would not
have been aware of the
program otherwise”
-Woman Farmer
