Crop Insurance

Crop Insurance plays an important role in providing the safety net that producers need to manage their risk from one growing season to the next. The federal crop insurance program allows them to make planting and management decisions based upon the level of coverage they choose to obtain, and it also allows farmers to work with their lenders to obtain the credit they need to manage their operations.

In recent years, we have seen an increase in producer participation in the program. Producers in Kansas continue to tell me that crop insurance has allowed them to stay in business during several years of significant crop losses.

While I believe we have made good improvements we have made to crop insurance, we can continue working to strengthen this portion of the safety net. We must work to ensure that periods of losses in consecutive years do not significantly undermine producers’ coverage. We must also make every effort to see that all producers, agents, and other industry officials operate in an ethical manner that does not harm the long term viability of the program.

I am proud of my efforts to improve this important program for producers not only in Kansas, but throughout the nation. As we move forward with our agriculture policy debates, I remain committed to further strengthening crop insurance.