Creating and Communicating
Risk Management
Opportunities for Specialty
Crop Producers
Molly Lutton, Research Coordinator
Rural Advancement Foundation International
(RAFI-USA)
2016 Extension Risk Management Education National Conference
Fort Worth, TX April 27-28 2016
What are we going to talk about?
1.Overview of RAFI’s Work on Risk
Management
2.RAFI’s Work on Communicating and
Educating Regarding Existing Risk
Management Options
3.RAFI’s Work on Creating New Risk
Management Options
2
The Rural Advancement Foundation International
(RAFI) combines on-the-ground services with
policy and market advocacy in order to ensure
that farmers have the opportunity to make the
right choices for their farm and families and that
these are also the right choices for the
environment and farming communities.
RAFI and Risk Management
• RAFI has worked in crop insurance and risk
management for several year
• Commodity to specialty crops
• Production- and program-based risk
management
A farm’s risk management strategy
and overall level of risk is directly
linked with what financial concept?
Credit Worthiness
The Structure of Ag Credit & Crop Insurance Programs
Farmer Decisions
• Specialty crops?
• More diverse cropping
systems?
• Other productionbased risk
management
practices?
Creditors
• Limited recognition
of production-based
risk management
• Reduce risk by
requiring crop
insurance
Crop Insurance
• Limited recognition
of production-based
risk management
• Not designed for
specialty or diverse
crops
Limited
Farmer
Options
SECTION 2:
RAFI’S WORK ON COMMUNICATING
AND EDUCATING REGARDING EXISTING
RISK MANAGEMENT OPTIONS
RAFI’s Approach
• Stakeholder Focused
• Participatory
• Iterative
RAFI’s Approach: Stakeholder
Focused
• Focused on reaching a wide audience by
conducting conferences throughout the
Southeast region and throughout North Carolina
for a wide geographic reach
• Focused on different commodities (Fruit and
Vegetable Expo, Strawberry Association) and
themes (Business of Farming, Sustainable
Agriculture)
RAFI’s Approach: Participatory
• Crop Insurance can be dense, technical, and complicated. It is key to keep
people engaged and involved
• Provide sample problems:
Past records  On average, you earn $1,000 in revenue on the farm, so
expect to earn this in 2015
You decide to buy a policy that insures 85% of your expected revenue:
• $1,000 * 85% = $850
Hail hits a week before
harvest, wiping out 50% of the
crop and leaving you with only
$500 in revenue for the year.
$1,000 expected
revenue
$350 indemnity
$350 Pa
$850 coverage level
$500 actual revenue
RAFI’s Approach: Participatory
• Provide examples and ways to make abstract
dense concepts applicable to an individual’s
real-world scenario
e.g. Walk through the RMA cost-estimator
guide and the FSA NAP calculator
How Can I Calculate WFRP
Premiums for My Farm?
http://tinyurl.com/USDA-WFRP
1) Click Quick Estimate
2) Fill in Quick Criteria
3) Fill in Individual Coverage
How much is covered by other policies?
Historical, Schedule F, Revenue
Expected, Farm Output
Report, Revenue
4) Premium Estimates & Details
RAFI’s Approach: Participatory
• Provide people with a toolbox
so they can leave the
presentation able to further
educate themselves and others
• We handed out USB flash
drives preloaded with
educational materials: USDA
factsheets, guides to using the
RMA estimator and FSA NAP
calculator, and a copy of the
presentation
RAFI’s Approach: Iterative
• Always ask for feedback from participants and then
incorporate that feedback into future presentations
• Use other areas of work to inform educational
approach and vice versa
SECTION 3:
RAFI’S WORK ON CREATING NEW
RISK MANAGEMENT OPTIONS
RAFI’s Approach: Iterative
Prior educational
outreach, surveys
and focus groups
revealed a lack of
coverage for many
specialty crops in
North Carolina,
particularly for
strawberries
RAFI’s Approach: Stakeholder
and Participatory
• Based on this knowledge, we conducted
extensive stakeholder engagement to
determine what options would work best for
increasing the risk management safety net for
farmers
• We provided ample opportunities for farmers
to provide us with feedback, to engage in the
process, and to inform our work
RAFI Creating New Risk
Management Opportunities
• We maintain good working relationships with
FSA, RMA, and local commodity groups
• Based on educational efforts and feedback,
we utilize these relationships with agencies to
increase coverage for these specialty crop
producers
Takeaways
• Education needs to be interactive and involve
audience engagement
• Education is not just top-down. Educational
efforts can be used to inform the presenter
and much as the audience
• Education is a not a stand-alone concept. It is
linked to all aspects of our work: research,
policy, programmatic
23
THANK YOU.
Follow-up thoughts or questions?
Contact Molly at
mlutton@rafiusa.org