Crop insurance is a valuable tool for our farming community as it provides a means to minimize financial losses relative to adverse conditions. The USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA) administers the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, and provides risk management information and services to farmers and producers.
Risk Management Agency (RMA) has completed their review of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Idalia relative to rainfall from the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) data . The conclusion of that analysis is that Columbus County, NC had rainfall amounts greater than 6”(inches). Columbus County in this case becomes a trigger county for the tropical storm rider, triggering crop insurance payments in adjacent counties, Bladen and Pender. Columbus, Brunswick, and Robeson were all initial adjacent counties to Horry and Dillon Counties in South Carolina and received tropical storm crop insurance payments in the initial round of payments. Columbus County having rainfall of greater than 6” created an additional trigger to the original identified rainfall trigger in Carteret County. In total, 11 counties in North Carolina will benefit from tropical storm crop payments in excess of $40M. Included below are updated maps of each storm’s track the associated rainfall totals for each county.
RMA has also completed their review of the rainfall totals for Tropical Storm Ophelia which came ashore in North Carolina in late September of this year. The final conclusion from RMA’s review of the NOAA rainfall data from CPC is that no counties triggered the Tropical Storm rider. Attached is an image of the storm track and the total weighted rainfall averages from each county. These totals are the weighted averages based on rainfall received in each PRF rainfall index grid in each county. RMA carries this number out to three places past the decimal with no rounding taking place. So, 5.999 inches does not round up to 6 inches. Attached is the rainfall totals from Ophelia as prepared by NOAA CPC.
A big picture of the process:
Payments triggered by real time weather information provided by NOAA CPC Rainfall records and windspeed records.
Review of rainfall in 60-90 days following the weather event. Any additional triggered counties would receive payment at the time of final verification if triggers are met.
Review of windspeeds are conducted in the spring each year (around May). If windspeed reviews identify that a trigger was met, then those counties and growers impacted will receive payment at that time.
Additional payments to producers through USDA’s Emergency Relief Program (ERP) are tied to crop insurance proceeds and additional assistance payments could be received by the grower/producer/farmer at another point in the future.
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