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Crop insurance programs and the 2023 Farm Bill
An ag economist says the future of crop insurance programs is unclear in the next farm bill.
Agricultural Economic Insights Co-Founder David Widmar uses the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs as an example.
“Something I’m watching to see in this next farm bill as negotiations and talks and conversations get started this summer and fall are ARC and PLC going to stick around,” he says. “Unfortunately, these safety nets were built when we were having declining commodity prices and that made them pretty attractive. But now that we have rising commodity prices and rising costs of production, I think it’s going to be harder for these programs to survive this round of negotiations. In other words, the safety nets aren’t really as safe as they were previously.”
He says he’ll also be curious to see where Congress is going to spend money.
“What is their spending appetite going to be,” he says. “Are they going to go back to this $10 or $13 billion range which has been a historic norm or are we going to go somewhere a little bit higher and start to bring in new types of programs into the farm bill to meet the needs and goals of Congress.”
Widmar made these comments during the 2022 Agricultural Summit by First Farmers Bank and Trust.
