March 1, 2023
We recently announced that RMA is making $2 million available for cooperative agreements for Risk Management Education and training programs that support farmers and ranchers, including underserved producers, small-scale farmers, organic operations, and climate-smart farm practices.
Every year, we seek proposals from organizations – such as universities, county cooperative extension offices, and nonprofit organizations – to use our funding to develop education tools that help producers learn how to effectively manage long-term risks and challenges.
RMA Administrator Marcia Bunger with faculty at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. The historically black university was one of 16 RMA funding recipients in 2022
Farming is a risky business, so we partner with organizations to provide valuable training, particularly in underserved communities, so that they learn how to effectively manage risks with their businesses.
This is all part of our overarching goal to broaden the reach of crop insurance. In the past two years, RMA has invested roughly $6.5 million into risk management education and outreach partnerships.
“Our project is proceeding well. Our efforts have been focused primarily on initial outreach and seminar planning,” explains Tom Blinn from AgriLogic Consulting LLC, one of 16 partners that received our funding last year.
Tom Blinn, AgriLogic Project Lead
Tom leads a team that has partnered with the Farmer Veteran Coalition to deliver Risk Management training to military veterans in North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. Their seminars cover Whole Farm Revenue Protection, recordkeeping, and crop insurance basics, among other subjects. Their sessions began this month.
“General feedback from enrollees indicates almost a complete lack of knowledge of the existence of crop insurance or how it operates,” he tells me. “Success will be attendees leaving our seminars with an enhanced understanding of the protection crop insurance can provide for their operations.”
A broad range of risk management training activities are eligible for funding right now, including training on crop insurance options, record keeping, financial management, non-insurance-based risk management tools and natural disaster preparedness among others. Partners can also train farmers at all levels on risk management options that help secure local food systems.
The notice of funding is public and has additional details View Opportunity |GRANTS.GOV. Interested organizations apply through the Results Verification System at http://rvs.umn.edu. Proposals are due April 24, 2023.
– Marcia
Marcia Bunger is the Administrator of USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA). Prior to her appointment, she served as a County Executive Director for USDA’s Farm Service Agency. A native South Dakotan, Bunger is also the owner and operator of a 2000-acre farm, a cum laude graduate of Augustana College, and the first member of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community and first woman to serve as RMA Administrator.