01/04/06 Insurance for farm revenue fluctuations

A federally subsidized insurance program called Adjusted Gross Revenue Lite is available right now to producers in Idaho and the Northwest. The regional director for the Risk Management Agency Dave Paul says AGR-Lite is the equivalent of the 'full meal deal.' PAUL "Covers loss of revenue from the sale of any commodities produced during the insurance year due to any unavoidable natural disasters or market fluctuations during the insurance year. It covers quality losses, production losses and market fluctuation type of losses on a farm, again, on a whole farm basis." Producers would determine a five year average for their gross revenue from the sale of their commodities and project their 2006 crop revenues. Farmers would get an indemnity payment if revenue from the commodities falls below the guaranteed level. And new this year will be an increase in maximum coverage from 250 thousand dollars to one million. PAUL "I did a lot of meetings last year on this policy, a lot of meetings in Idaho and there was a lot of interest in the program but once we started talking about limiting the coverage to 250 thousand dollars we lost our audience real quickly." Producers who have been in the AGR-Lite program have until January 31st to enroll again. For those who have never been in the program March 15th is the signup deadline. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott