Continuing the Conversation
February 26, 2021

When I wrote to you all last week, I was about to attend the Agricultural Outlook Forum. Last week, I served as moderator at the forum for a very productive discussion panel on Federal crop insurance. Overall, I’m told the forum was a great success. In fact, attendance at this year’s Ag Outlook was much higher than previous years. While many miss attending face-to-face expos, it seems a virtual format does have its perks.

Our panel this year explored how stakeholder engagement and public-private partnerships can be leveraged to provide USDA program flexibilities during catastrophes like the pandemic and natural disasters impacting rural communities.

The panel represented the three main parties in Federal crop insurance: the insurance agent, the producer, and RMA.

Ruth Gerdes, a top crop insurance agent in the country, and President of Auburn Agency Crop, credited the public-private partnership, and bipartisan political support for Federal crop insurance, as key factors in overcoming challenges posed by disastrous Midwest floods in 2019.

“The panel showcased the effective working relationship between RMA and Approved Insurance Providers, for the benefit of farmers,” she told me afterward. “With the challenges of 2019, what stood out to me is how responsive and nimble this partnership collectively responded to these disasters. “

We were also fortunate to have Tawny Tesconi, a California farmer, and Executive Director of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, on the panel. She provided a great perspective of specialty crop growers and of agriculture in the western states in general. Producers in the Golden State have faced extreme challenges on top of dealing with the pandemic.

"RMA's interest in discussing changes and additional flexibilities to their crop insurance programs is encouraging and was appreciated,” she explained. “Without the valuable financial support programs offered through the USDA, our local farmers and ranchers would have a difficult time recovering from natural disasters such as the wildfires that have plagued northern California for the last several years. “

RMA’s own Senior Underwriter David Zanoni also participated in the panel. He did a great job of explaining how our team worked hard with our partners to respond to the various challenges COVID has posed to multiple sectors of Agriculture.

“Our system must be resilient. If insurance can’t be there when there is a disaster, then it doesn’t work,” he said. “AIPs are a critical part of the delivery system and working with them to help limit face-to-face interactions when servicing a policy, such as signing forms, was an important part of keeping the system going.”

A recording of the panel discussion will soon be made available by the Department. I will let you know when it is posted.  If you didn’t get a chance to attend, I would encourage you to take a moment to watch it. 

-Richard