Schumer Urges Vilsack to Expand Soybean Insurance to 14 Counties Throughout Upstate in Order to Boost Important Crop, Grow Local Economies

Today U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer announced that he has called the Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Tom Vilsack, to urge him to expand USDA's soybean insurance coverage to an additional 14 counties across Upstate New York. Currently the program, which covers farmers' soybean crops when they are damaged by severe weather, insect or weed infestation, is not available in some Upstate counties putting local farmers at a competitive disadvantage.

During the call, Secretary Vilsack pledged to look closely at Schumer's proposal and said he remained open to doing so in the near future.

"Expanding access to soybean insurance to more of our Upstate farmers could be a real game changer," Schumer said "Soybeans are a profitable crop that hold real economic potential, but the industry can't take off if they aren't given access to some basic protections. I'm glad Secretary Vilsack is going to give this expansion proposal a close examination and I'm confident USDA will soon see the clear benefits."

Agriculture producers seeking to manage risk may purchase insurance for their crops. USDA's Risk Management Agency pays a portion of producers' premium costs for insurance policies and also pays some of the delivery and administrative costs of private insurance companies that handle policy sales, thus ensuring local farmers have the necessary protection against risk to grow the crop. Currently, soybean coverage is not offered throughout New York meaning some producers do not have access to key insurance products and must instead rely on catastrophic coverage, higher-priced private coverage or go without insurance.

In his conversation with Secretary Vilsack Schumer asked that the program be expanded to include the following counties in New York: Chemung, Chenango, Clinton, Columbia, Dutchess, Essex, Franklin, Herkimer, Madison, Oneida, Otsego, St. Lawrence, Tioga and Washington. These counties have applied to be included in the program, and their request is currently with USDA. Because this is a spring planted crop, the changes would need to be made in the spring crop filing, which is typically in October. Therefore, a decision would need to be made by August or September 2010.

When deciding whether to expand an insurance program, the USDA takes the following into account:

1. Evidence that the crop is agronomic/horticultural appropriate in the county.

2. Interest in insurance coverage from local farmers.

3. Economic significant of crop in the county.

4. Quality of markets available for the crop within a reasonable distance.

5. Quality of available data -- in order to expand a program in a county, there must be enough crop data to establish the rates and prices.

According to the USDA, the U.S. has over 70 million acres of land that produces well over 2.5 million bushels of soybean annually. Better protecting our soybean crops by expanding the federal government's insurance program will likely increase production as profitability increases. During the last period where statistics have been finalized (2006-2007), the price of a bushel of soybeans jumped over 57% making the need to lock in a robust soybean insurance program for farmers in places like Upstate New York all the more important.

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