Federal Crop Insurance Background and Costs of Insuring Higher Production Risks

The federal crop insurance program began in 1938 when Congress authorized the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation. The current program, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Risk Management Agency (RMA), provides producers with risk management tools to address crop yield and/or revenue losses for about 130 crops. The federal farm safety net also includes the farm commodity support programs, which provide price and income support for a much narrower list of "covered and loan commodities" such as corn, wheat, rice, and peanuts. This book provides a primer on the federal crop insurance program and highlights changes to the program by the 2014 farm bill. It also the examines the government's cost of the crop insurance program; and the extent to which RMA's premium rates, as implemented, cover expected losses.