Soybean Survey Shows Insurance Support

April 11, 2002

Soybean producers generally show widespread support for soybean insurance products reinsured by USDA's Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, according to a recent United Soybean Board (USB) survey. And for Criss Davis, a soybean farmer in Shullsburg, WI, that news came as a welcome surprise.

As chairman of the Trade Analysis Committee for the USB and a producer farming 3,000 acres to soybeans and other grains in Wisconsin, Davis and other USB members had a number of concerns regarding crop insurance that they wanted their survey to address. So he helped oversee the project that put the survey together.

"We began this process because we'd heard anecdotally that soybean farmers had been having problems with crop insurance," said Davis. "We wanted to find out what their issues were, and how they could be addressed."

The survey consisted of 800 interviews and three focus groups of soybean farmers across the United States over a six-month time frame and included farmers who carry crop insurance as well as farmers who do not and never have. The USB also completed an in-depth county-level analysis of all soybean producing counties.

"We were quite surprised to find out that farmers in general were very satisfied with the current crop insurance program," Davis said. "I think the reason for that has been the changes made [by RMA] in the crop insurance program over the past couple of years."

One major finding of the survey, according to Davis, is that farmers who were the best informed about crop insurance were the most satisfied with the federally sponsored program. And the reverse was also true: those who were the least informed were the least satisfied.

Sixty-three percent of those who have carried crop insurance and 67% of those who currently have buy-up coverage were satisfied with the insurance products; soybean producers who have crop insurance described their experience as a positive one; soybean producers say the paperwork required to participate in crop insurance programs is easy to complete and understand.

Other findings showed 79% of soybean producers believe subsidies for federally sponsored crop insurance are a good use of tax dollars, and price is not soybean farmers' leading concern