Traditional crop insurance does not reflect high cost of specialty crop production. Growers prefer cost of production insurance as it more accurately reflects their investment risk. Weakness of Current Plans SCIA Provision Discussion 14. Current program administration is not sufficiently flexible to respond to local needs. State committees should have the ability to tailor contracts to local conditions.
Trade associations are in the best position to educate growers as to insurance options and benefits.
Trade associations may pay fee for CAT insurance. Role of trade associations in education and promotion should be encouraged through insurance fund. There now exists a window of opportunity to change the way specialty crop insurance is developed and administered in such a way as to reflect the fundamental differences between growing and marketing specialty crops as opposed to non-specialty crops. By increasing the flexibility of the program to respond to the diverse and heterogeneous needs of producers and commodities, and by creating policies that are of real value to growers, program goals of broad grower participation can be achieved. By focusing on the improving the attractiveness of indemnities to growers, and by eliminating buy-up premiums, actuarial soundness can be achieved at the same cost to the government while improving program participation and effectiveness.