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Farmer seeks crop insurance certainty in the 2023 Farm Bill
A west central Indiana farmer says he doesn’t want to see major changes to the crop insurance programs as the 2023 Farm Bill process gets underway.
Scott Smith, president of the Indiana Corn Growers Association, expressed his concerns during a recent farm policy roundtable with Indiana Congressman Jim Baird and House Ag Committee Ranking Member Glenn “GT” Thompson.
“On the crop insurance, it’s going to be higher so the selections of what we choose may be different based on the cost of that. It’s a risk management tool that is necessary for us to ensure that we have sustainability,” he says. “It’s the responsible thing to do from my perspective, due to the fact of high input costs and unknowns of what the price is going to do and what the crop is going to do.”
The agriculture industry is facing record input costs and availability concerns.
Thompson says because crop insurance is misunderstood by many lawmakers, there could be amendments to the program.
The safety nets were introduced to help combat declining commodity prices. Thompson says although (commodity) prices have improved, rising input costs have to be considered.
“That’s something we’ve been hearing about, and we need to be discussing and looking at the impact of not just prices, but margin,” he says
Indiana Corn Growers Association was one of several Hoosier agriculture stakeholders to participate in the recent roundtable.
Smith owns Triple “S” Smith Farms in Tippecanoe County.
