Congress has been sending messages to agricultural producers that farm programs will continue to be cut, including disaster assistance. Public policy emphasis has been to move agriculture to a more market economy and to have producers assume more of the income risks. Producers must improve price and yield risk management and look for ways to transfer some of the production and price risk. Crop Insurance Crop insurance is both an important component of risk management activities and an inexpensive way to reduce risk. Typical sources of risk for citrus producers include unstable prices, insect and disease damage, adverse weather, costs of inputs, and foreign competition.
Crop insurance is one tool that citrus producers can use to help manage production and price risk.
Crop insurance is a risk management policy that is subsidized by the government whereby losses are paid based on a percentage of the loss, depending on the levels of coverage purchased. Crop insurance is available for many crops grown in Florida. Availability of insurance for these crops will vary by county and by the commodity grown. Coverage against these perils is provided as a unit-production guarantee. The unit-production guarantee is converted to dollars of protection by a price election selected by the insured when the policy is purchased.