Design of the Rainfall Index Crop Insurance Program for Pasture, Rangeland, and Forage

This article considers three possible issues about the design of the Rainfall Index Pasture, Rangeland and Forage (RI-PRF) crop insurance program: (i) how well the rainfall index matches actual rainfall, (ii) whether the county base values can be made more accurate using spatial smoothing, and (iii) optimal choices of RI-PRF crop insurance alternatives for producers and reducing the number of choices that producers have to make. Based on the results, we conclude that the RI-PRF crop insurance program needs to reduce the number of choices and provide suggestions for restricting the choices.