USA - Scrap the Senate Farm Bill and Start Over Record farm incomes provide a welcome opportunity to reform the antiquated, Depression-era system of expensive farm subsidies. Regrettably, the Senate farm bill (H.R. 2419) fails to modernize these programs. If the bill is enacted, Americans will continue paying $25 billion in taxes and another $12 billion in higher food prices annually for a program that distributes most of its benefits to millionaires. Additionally, these subsidies would continue to damage the environment (by promoting overproduction), undermine trade (thereby raising consumer prices and restricting U.S. exports), and promote poor diets (by subsidizing the sources of sugars and fats rather than healthier fruits and vegetables). Organizations representing taxpayers, consumers, environmentalists, international trade, global antipoverty advocates, and even farmers agree that the current farm subsidy system is failing and in dire need of reform. Nonetheless, the current Senate bill retains this expensive and broken syste
USA - What Was Behind the Honey Bee Wipeout? The honeybee (Apis mellifera) is a European native, one of very few bee species in the world to store honey in bulk and live fulltime in large colonies (30,000 to 100,000 individuals). It is the only bee with a long history of intensive management by people. For almost all of this time, and continuing today in many parts of the world, the rosy picture of bee life painted above is largely accurate. But when beekeeping meets industrial agriculture, the result is very different. Colony collapse disorder may have many contributing causes, but it comes down to bees hitting the biological limits of our agricultural system. It's not so much a bee crisis as a pollination crisis. And we may end up calling it agricultural collapse disorder.
U.S. Farmers in Brazil: Overview There is no official data on how many American farmers are operating in Brazil. Even the U.S. agricultural attache in Brazil had no information on the subject. But after some extensive research, it seems there are no more than a few dozen owner-operated American farmers in Brazil. Most are relative newcomers, but there is also a small Mennonite community, which came from Ohio and Georgia in the late 1960s and settled in soy-rich region of Rio Verde, Goias state in the center west of the country.
Innovative forms of insurance could unshackle a green revolution in Africa and other poor nations Smallholder farmers can thus obtain the fertilizer and other crucial inputs they need, and neither the farmers nor the bank must bear unmanageable risks in a loan contract. Contract farming, in which the inputs are financed not by a bank but by a buyer of the farm output (for example, a purchaser for supermarkets), can provide the same bundle of financing with insurance. These financial arrangements may seem like dry, technical adjustments of modest import, but our experience at the Earth Institute at Columbia University suggests that financial engineering and clever contract design will allow a breakthrough in the modernization of agriculture in Africa, the Philippines and other highly risky places. Earlier this year, the Earth Institute and the reinsurer Swiss Re designed and implemented a rainfall-index contract for the Sauri Millennium Village in Western Kenya.
End to good old days of cheap food risks an age of mass starvation The era of cheap food is over. The price of corn (maize) has doubled in a year, and wheat futures are at their highest in a decade. The food price index in India has risen 11 per cent in one year, and in Mexico there were riots in January after the price of corn flour (used in making the staple food of the poor, tortillas) went up fourfold. Even in developed countries food prices are going up, and they are not going to come down again.
Crop Insurance in India - recent development (2006) NAIS protects the farmers only against the yield fluctuations. The price fluctuations are outside the purview of this scheme. Farmers’ income is a function of yield and market prices. Therefore, despite normal production, farmers often fail to maintain their income level due to fluctuations in market prices. To take care of variability in both the yield and market price, the government introduced a pilot project, viz. Farm Income Insurance Scheme (FIIS) during Rabi 2003-04 season.
Italy - Risk management in agriculture: the Italian insurance system and the new tools of intervention The limited diffusion of insurance schemes in Italy should be submitted to a detailed analysis of the real causes of its partial failure. First of all, a good starting point would be the evaluation of the impact of the different risk management strategies (such as portfolio diversification) on the propensity of agricultural producers to insure. This kind of analysis has never been conducted by an institutional subject. For a more effective risk and crisis management strategy Cia considers the importance to introduce alternative instruments, such as Mutualisation funds. The introduction of such new instruments would also require interaction between the Funds and the insurance companies aimed to systemic risk sharing or reinsurance agreements.
Agricultural insurance system is built on cooperation of 8 insurance companies working through the fund – partnership system “Die Osterreichische Hagelversicherung”. It was founded in 1946 (nonprofit). Business organization is built on mutual insurance association system. The corporate objectives include comprehensive risk management for agriculture system and non-profit features.
The publication provides a short overview of the agricultural insurance system in France including description of the new agricultural insurance initiatives introduced in 2002 and 2005. The system is highly supported by the public finance system providing ad hoc payments and catastrophic assistance. The government also provide insurance premium subsidies - this program will be developed in the nearest years.
The sum of premiums collected in 2006 was 4,57 billion USD. Most premiums were collected on corn (appr. 35%), soy beans (20%), wheat (15%) and cotton (10%) insurance contracts. RMA representatives indicated that nursery insurance becomes an important line of crop insurance program. Farm-level revenue plans (crop revenue insurance, revenue assurance and income protection) are the most popular with farmers. Revenue plans supply over 60% of premiums collected on the agricultural insurance program. Farm-level yield plans (actual production history and grower yield certification) provide about 20% of the premiums. Group risk income protection is the third important insurance plan providing about 10% of the premiums collected.
25.03.2008 Ukraine - Agricultural insurance seminar was conducted on March 18 for specialists of Providna insurance company. Seminar on agricultural insurance was conducted on March 18, 2008 for the specialists of insurance company Providna. Participants were trained on basics of agricultural insurance, specifics of crop and livestock insurance, principles of survey and loss adjustment. Training event was prepared by the experts of IFC Agri-insurance Development Project 27.10.2007 Global Animal Health Initiative: the Way Forward” in collaboration with the FAO at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington DC (USA), October 9, 10 and 11 2007. The World Bank and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) co-organised a Conference on “Global Animal Health Initiative: the Way Forward” in collaboration with the FAO at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington DC (USA), October 9, 10 and 11 2007. 123 participants coming from international and regional organizations, representatives of governments of developing and developed countries from the five continents, and the private sector, stressed the importance and urgency of improving the governance and infrastructure worldwide in the field of veterinary zoonoses and animal diseases prevention and control mechanisms, as well as private-public partnership in the implementation of specific programs directed to animal health.
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The World Bank and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) co-organised a Conference on “Global Animal Health Initiative: the Way Forward” in collaboration with the FAO at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington DC (USA), October 9, 10 and 11 2007. 123 participants coming from international and regional organizations, representatives of governments of developing and developed countries from the five continents, and the private sector, stressed the importance and urgency of improving the governance and infrastructure worldwide in the field of veterinary zoonoses and animal diseases prevention and control mechanisms, as well as private-public partnership in the implementation of specific programs directed to animal health.
