USDA Risk Management Agency Strategic Plan FY 2015 – 2018

The USDA Risk Management Agency Strategic Plan FY 2015 – 2018 is a national sectoral strategic plan of the United States of America. Its main objective is serving America’s agricultural producers through effective, market-based risk management tools to strengthen the economic stability of agricultural producers and rural communities.
More specifically, it aims to ensure a fair and effective risk management product delivery system; educate stakeholders to ensure knowledge of and access to risk management tools and products; safeguard the integrity of the federal crop insurance program; and create an RMA for the 21st century that is high performing, efficient, and adaptable. Among others, the Plan also provides to ensure that Federal crop insurance products are fundamentally and actuarially sound and continue to review products and make appropriate changes; establish and develop appropriate crop insurance policies, premium rates, coverage provisions, transitional yields, and other appropriate insurance data; facilitate and foster development of new insurance products and other risk management solutions to fill identified gaps in the farm financial safety net for crops such as pasture, rangeland forage, organics, energy crops, specialty crops, and others; expand existing crop insurance programs where appropriate; continue to expand policies for organic price coverage, and advance awareness and use of the contract price addendum such that producers with written contracts may insure their organic crop at the contract price; improve the effectiveness of existing programs by tailoring offers to unique types and practices; and where appropriate adjusting premium rates, transitional yields, initial and final planting dates, acreage reporting dates, conditions of coverage, and high risk or other map areas within each county to recognize structural changes to the risks of growing the crop in the area; continue to refine and expand the availability of innovative grid-based weather derivative insurance products to crops and areas that are either currently uninsured or underinsured; improve the effectiveness of products and services to address demonstrated market needs and program integrity through product review, handbook reviews, and market assessment(s); provide additional opportunities for risk coverage for producers and commodities through county, crop, type, practice, variety, and whole farm types of program expansion; monitor and evaluate pilot program operations at the local level to ensure actuarial soundness and effectiveness; interact with producers, universities, insurance providers, farm organizations, commodity groups, and other stakeholders at a local level to identify improvements in insurance programs and implement recommendations that support Goal 1; identify and correct insurance policy and procedural inconsistencies at all levels that contribute to misunderstandings or misconceptions by producers, insurance agents, loss adjusters, and routinely issue guidance until procedures can be clarified; complete the work of the USDA Acreage Crop Reporting Streamlining Initiative (ACRSI) and implement the identified program simplification changes to allow producers to report common USDA program data one time through the reporting portal of their choosing; evaluate and implement improvements to update and modernize the Actual Production History (APH) program; continue to make crop insurance available to individuals as appropriate through written agreements when the established crop insurance programs are not available in a particular county; develop and maintain maps used to identify high risk areas, uninsured acreage, and coverage (transitional yields); and develop Special Provisions of Insurance to address unique crop or regional conditions to enhance the program or address potential program vulnerabilities.