Coming into the 2012 Farm Bill, there was one sure consensus among producers and the lawmakers who crafted the bill – crop insurance was to be its cornerstone. Witness after witness in hearing after hearing indicated that the federal crop insurance program should be the foundation of risk protection for agriculture. That is the way that the Agriculture Committees crafted their farm bills in both the Senate and the House. At the time those hearings were convened starting in 2011, USDA had enjoyed underwriting gains on the program in six of the previous 11 years. The last full year of crop insurance records (i.e. 2010) showed the total cost of the program to be $3.671 billion, which was less than the 10-year average annual cost of $3.999 bi...
What You Need to Know Today: Chinese purchases of U.S. soybeans continued to accelerate, with USDA reporting another 558 KMT sold to China and 236 KMT to unknown destinations. Combined with sales announced Wednesday and Thursday, the latest purchases bring the three-day total to approximately...
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.