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Crop insurance cuts recommended, but groups push back

A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommends reducing the expected rate of return for companies that sell federal crop insurance.

The GAO says the insurance program’s target rate of return of 14.5 percent is about five points higher than is needed to provide “a reasonable rate of return” to those companies.

National Crop Insurance Services (NCIS), the organization representing private crop insurance companies, criticized the report, saying it greatly overstated net returns for crop insurance providers. NCIS told Agri-Pulse the program is working and “does not need to be weakened when it is needed most”.

Farm groups are also fighting to maintain crop insurance at current levels. Nebraska Farm Bureau president Steve Nelson says it’s the most important part of the farm bill.

“We continue to have pressure from groups that don’t really understand the challenges that there are in farming and ranching, and don’t understand the importance of having a stable food supply because they take that for granted,” Nelson says.

He points out that spending on all ag programs represents less than 20 percent of the cost of the farm bill.

“There needs to be a lot of discussion around those other things—the nutrition program and those kinds of things that are also part of the farm bill,” Nelson says. “We would hope that the same scrutiny that applies to crop insurance or commodity programs would also apply to those larger areas of the farm bill as well.

Nebraska Farm Bureau, along with several other ag groups, will hold a Nebraska Agriculture Farm Bill Listening Session this Friday morning at 10 a.m. in Grand Island. All five members of Nebraska’s congressional delegation will take part in the event, which will be held in the Bosselman Center on the Nebraska State Fairgrounds.

AUDIO: Steve Nelson