Federal Crop Insurance Program Celebrates 75 Years

Federal Crop Insurance Program Celebrates 75 Years
I’m KayDee Gilkey with today’s Northwest Farm and Ranch Report.

The USDA Risk Management and Crop Insurance System celebrates a milestone this month as USDA Risk Management Agency Administrator Brandon Willis explains.

Willis: “Seventy five years ago the Federal Crop Insurance Act was signed into law obviously in a direct response to some severe drought coincidently at that point in time -- that was right around the Dust Bowl time period. And the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation came into existence in 1939.”

Since its creation, Willis says the number of acres and commodities covered by the Federal Crop Insurance Programs have grown over the years.

Willis: “Only wheat was insured during the first three years. Then cotton was offered back in the 40’s, so the program has gradually increased and improved the amount of acres and the amount of crops that it covers. It was actually suspended in 1944 and 1945 and after WWII coverage for corn, tobacco and flax were added. It’s interestingly to just look at the progress that has been made in even the last 20 years. If you go back to 1988 to the last major drought we had -- 25 percent of the acres that could have been insured, were insured. You fast forward to today and 85 percent of your corn and soybeans acreage are insured nationwide.”

Willis shares some additional statistics showing the growth of the crop insurance program.

Willis: “We’ve made so much progress. Back in 1998 we had about 90 crops were covered, today we are at about 130. Back in 1998 you had about 280 million acres and now we are 90 million more than that.”