AgFax
Tara Smith took part in a farm bill panel hosted by the Louisiana Farm Bureau where they talked about crop insurance programs under the next farm bill. Smith seemed confident Congress could still make positive changes in crop insurance programs despite a flat budget.
“Because of the funny math that we use with with Congress and with budgets, there are ways that you can actually make changes to crop insurance policies. We can still make improvements, or even create new policies that won’t have that budgetary effect.”
Smith said for Louisiana, crop insurance does have some gaps and deficiencies that Congress could correct in the new Farm Bill.
“Crop insurance is designed to be a big tent and cover a little bit of everybody. I know that there are some commodities that are produced in Louisiana that maybe don’t have a policy at all right now, like poultry.”
“So, I think about opportunities for producers who maybe don’t have a policy at all to get one moving forward. I also see an opportunity to find ways to come up with less expensive policies to cover very specific risks for farmers in Louisiana, whether that’s a hurricane policy or a margin insurance policy to help with input costs.”
