ITHACA, N.Y. — With a major crop insurance sign-up deadline looming March 15th, New York farmers have new tools to understand how crop insurance might work for their farms. The Ag-Analytics.Org team at Cornell University has developed a suite of web tools that allow producers to generate individualized instant premium estimates for different yield or revenue projections. The tool works for both traditional single-crop policies and for the new Whole Farm Revenue Protection option, which allows diversified farms to cover many crops under one plan.
The tools can be found at Ag-Analytics.Org. The site offers other crop insurance resources such as fact sheets for all major New York state crops, deadlines, and farmer testimonials. Ag-Analytics.Org also features a mapping application that allows farmers to create accounts and view extensive field data including soil, weather, and satellite-derived vegetative indexes.
Jenny Ifft and Josh Woodard, both assistant professors in the Dyson School at Cornell University, are leading a USDA-funded crop insurance education project leveraging the Ag-Analytics.Org platform. “I hope our tools will allow producers to understand how their yields or revenues impact the prices they pay for crop insurance, and how crop insurance can help them in a loss situation,” said Woodard, founder of Ag-Analytics.Org. According to Ifft, who manages the project’s outreach component, “our goal is for all New York state farmers to understand how crop insurance could work for their farm and make an informed decision about whether or not to buy it.”
One of the first farmers to road-test the new tools, David Votypka of Votypka Farms, found that the new tools helped clarify questions about crop insurance that were still lingering after using it over 25 years. “This is the informational tool I needed from my crop insurance agent, but was never presented with,” said Votypka.
To try the new tools or learn more about crop insurance, visit Ag-Analytics.Org.
–Cornell University
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