Crop Insurance Today First Quarter 2021 - 9

Martin Barbre, RMA Administrator, provided
an RMA update at the 2020 Crop Insurance
Convention.

a whole. NCIS staff provided updates on handbooks, actuarials, policies, endorsements, and
forms. Other topics during the webinar included
the Perennial and Specialty Crop Work group,
Hurricane Insurance Protection-Wind Index
updates, and the Hybrid Specialty Seed policy.

Loss Adjustment Webinars

Because loss adjuster schools and field days
were unable to be held in person, several of the
regional/state committees decided to hold webinars to provide training on new products. The
Southeast Committee focused on the Production

and Revenue History (PRH) Strawberry policy.
More than 90 company trainers, field personnel
and RMA attended the training that consisted of
four parts: a product overview, highlights from
the strawberry crop provisions, loss adjustment
procedures, and loss examples. The Northwest
Committee hosted an Apple Tree Policy and Loss
Adjustment webinar with information provided
on the policy language and instruction given
on loss adjustment and forms completion. And
finally, an APH Florida Citrus Fruit webinar,
hosted by the Southeast Committee, provided
attendees with information on the new policy
and loss handbook procedures.
NCIS' Training Department also facilitated a Hurricane Insurance Policy-Wind Index
(HIP-WI) webinar for member company and
RMA participants. Participation, product performance and challenges were discussed along
with key points about the coverage that should
be explained to potential policyholders. Several
examples were discussed focusing on 1st/2nd
crop, SCO and STAX, an early trigger event and
more than one trigger event.

Other Activities and
Accomplishments

While working remotely, and the inability to
attend meetings in person, made 2020 a bit challenging at times, that did not stop NCIS and the
industry from having a successful year providing
risk management tools and information to farmers and ranchers across the country.

* NCIS, the companies, and RMA held conference calls regularly throughout 2020 to
discuss impending bulletins, changes to
policies, and other pertinent topics, such
as COVID-19 guidelines, hurricanes, and
the derecho.
* Staff filed Final Average Loss Costs for the
2021 crop season as well as several new
forms and endorsements, including the
wheat and barley wind shatter endorsement in Idaho, cotton wind endorsement
in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana,
Mississippi, North and South Carolina, and
Virginia, and the transitional corn wind/
green snap endorsement in Georgia and
North Carolina, among others.
* Dr. Harun Bulut published a peer-reviewed
journal article in the Agricultural Finance
Review (AFR) entitled " The Impact of Enterprise Unit Policy Change on the Quantity Demanded for Crop Insurance. " The article examined the RMA's change of enterprise unit
subsidies and the impact on crop insurance
purchases.
* NCIS staff released 12 issues of Asked and
Answered in 2020. This document focuses on
new and current issues, as well as hot topics
such as WFRP, MCEU, HEMP, and Prevented
Planting. Asked & Answered also addresses
underwriting issues and loss inquiries and
can be used as a training opportunity for
agents, adjusters, and company employees.
* NCIS helped facilitate six opinion-editori-

These farmers participated in the risk management education workshops in Oklahoma in early 2020.
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Crop Insurance Today First Quarter 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crop Insurance Today First Quarter 2021