Crop Insurance Doesn’t Account for the Risk Mitigation. August 29, 2023

 

 

Crop Insurance Doesn’t Account for the Risk Mitigation of Diversified Farming Systems. Data Driven Research Can Change That

 

Farming can be risky. Floods and heat waves wipe out crops, while climate change is increasing the variability and severity of farm-threatening weather hazards. As research shows that practices like cover cropping and rotating cash crops can reduce that risk, agriculture insurers and lenders currently have no way to value that risk mitigation. That’s where a team of agroecologists, economists, and statisticians steps in. This summer, the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research and the US Department of Agriculture awarded grants to BFI Co-Associate Faculty Director Tim Bowles and his colleagues to create an actuarial model to quantify that risk reduction to help bring that dollar value back to farmers.

 

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