WASHINGTON — In an exciting public-private partnership, the United States Department of Agriculture worked with Meridian Institute’s AGree Initiative and the University of Illinois to evaluate conservation and crop insurance data in six states (IA, IL, IN, MN, MO, and SD) affected by extremely wet spring weather in 2019.
The unusual weather that year prevented planting on 19.6 million acres and the cost to taxpayers was $4.2 billion for crop insurance on those prevented plant acres. The pilot project sought to understand how cover crop and no-till practices, particularly when used for multiple years, impact whether a field was declared “prevented plant” for 2019.
On March 2 at 2:00 pm ET join AGree for a webinar to discuss the results of the pilot project with Bill Northey, Chief Executive Officer of the Agribusiness Association of Iowa and former USDA Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation; Dr. Rob Myers, Director of the Center for Regenerative Agriculture at University of Missouri; and Dr. Bruce Sherrick, Director of the TIAA Center for Farmland Research at University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign. The conversation will be moderated by Deborah Atwood, AGree Strategic Advisor and Meridian Institute Senior Fellow.
WHO:
- Bill Northey, Chief Executive Officer of the Agribusiness Association of Iowa and former USDA Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation
- Dr. Rob Myers, Director of the Center for Regenerative Agriculture at University of Missouri
- Dr. Bruce Sherrick, Director of the TIAA Center for Farmland Research at University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign
- Deborah Atwood, AGree Strategic Advisor and Meridian Institute Senior Fellow.
WHAT: Join AGree for an analysis of the just-released pilot results.
WHEN: Thursday, March 2, 2023 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET
This important research project would not have been possible without the efforts of several staff from multiple agencies at USDA. Dr. Bruce Sherrick from the University of Illinois led the team to collect, assess, organize, and evaluate data from relevant sources at USDA and the private sector. Dr. Rob Myers from the University of Missouri provided conservation expertise on the research and has led efforts to communicate the research results.
About The AGree Initiative
The AGree Initiative includes the AGree Economic and Environmental Risk Coalition (AGree E2 Coalition) and the AGree Climate, Food, and Ag Dialogue (CFAD) both housed at the Meridian Institute. AGree focuses on developing innovative and scalable policies and pilot programs that support farmers in improving agronomic and environmental outcomes while adapting to weather variability. AGree partners believe there are real opportunities to use federal agricultural policy to incentivize and scale agricultural practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve soil health, and enhance water quality while reducing farmer costs and improving profitability.
— AGree