Author
Wang, H. Holly
Current country-based group crop insurance, i.e., Group Risk Plan (GRP), is not an effective risk-reducing tool in counties where natural conditions are different across the area. Using only the historical yield information, a statistical approach is developed to group farmers by their yield similarity rather than linking them based on their association with a particular county. The cases of Washington State wheat farms and Iowa corn farms are the focus of this investigation. Sub-county or cross-county zones (clusters) are identified, and each farm is classified into a cluster where individual farm identification remains unknown. To improve risk-management and cost effectiveness of the crop insurance instrument, we propose implementation of zone-based GRP as a substitute for county-based GRP, where homogeneous zones rather than county boundaries are used for indemnifying yield.
Logit and ordered probit analyses were used to identify factors associated with reduced tillage adoption, continuous spring cropping, and the number of changes made in response to wind erosion. Contrary to previous results for water erosion control, simple perception of a wind erosion problem or membership in a particular socioeconomic category did not significantly explain adoption of wind erosion control practices, but participating in a targeted educational program did. This educational program: (a) highlighted the threats of wind erosion to human health and to soil productivity, and (b) described specific potentially profitable farming practices for solving the wind erosion problem.