Risk Management Education Partnership Program 2023 Projects

Project: Providing a Risk Management Education Series to Veteran Farmers
Award Amount: $197,000
State(s): National

Project Description: This project, will expand our partnership with the FVC to make additional risk management education available to the Coalition’s veteran membership. With this partnership, we will expand on the risk management topics provided under the previous program to provide additional information to prior attendees as well as provide the opportunity for veteran producers unable to attend previous webinars another opportunity to participate. The objective of this project is to provide a risk management overview at the FVC annual meeting, provide nine webinar sessions on various risk management topics including a virtual Risk Management Panel and Open Q&A session. Webinar materials will subsequently be made available online on the FVC website.

Project: Crop Insurance Education for Underserved Audiences
Award Amount: $59,730
State(s): National

Project Description: The risks associated with agriculture are high, which makes farming a challenging endeavor. Additional risk is experienced by those, particularly women farmers, who are under prepared and educated to operate an agricultural business. Women who are involved in urban agriculture and specialty crop production often face further challenges due to lack of resources and access to training. This project will concentrate on reaching women who are involved in urban agriculture, as well as women producing traditional commodities, underserved commodities, and specialty crops. It is the intent of Annie's Project to replicate this program and make it available across the US and its territories.

The proposed activities for reaching this target audience include in-person workshops and courses, virtual courses, virtual meetings and webinars, videos from the Annie’s Project YouTube channel, and podcasts. We will have a broad range of activities in order to reach the target audience in a way that is convenient and personalized to meet their needs. Speakers will include RMA personnel, crop insurance agents, University Extension personnel, and local speakers. Anticipated attendance for these activities are 200 women. The knowledge gained and behavioral changes implemented from the will positively impact participants’ farming operations.

Project: RMA SE Ambassador
Award Amount: $250,000
State(s): Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia

Project Description: The RMA SE Ambassador Program is a strategic initiative designed to strengthen RMA's outreach, engagement, and impact within the agricultural community. This program seeks to leverage the expertise and passion of the Ambassador to enhance RMA's presence and mission.

Project: Growing Opportunity for Organic and Specialty Crop Producers Through Crop Insurance Education
Award Amount: $99,079
State(s): Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota

Project Description: The goal of this project is to provide crop insurance education to organic farmers and specialty crop producers in the Midwest and Great Plains. Efforts will support producers in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Kansas, and Minnesota. The project team will develop eight total educational materials (combined English and Spanish) on crop insurance options for organic and specialty crop operations, including at least one resource on Whole Farm Revenue Protection, and one on the Transitional and Organic Grower Assistance Program. The project team will widely circulate the resources among farmer networks and media, facilitate at least two small group discussions, give four live educational presentations, a fifth presentation highlighting the availability of RMA specialty crop liaisons, and provide 1-on-1 support to at least 30 producers.

These efforts will include the following outcomes: 200 producers will learn about their crop insurance options, 2,000 will increase their awareness of crop insurance options for organic and specialty crops, 50 will learn about priority crop insurance options during live presentations, 30 will receive 1-on-1 support as they evaluate their coverage options, 20 will learn from their peers in small groups, and 25 will ultimately buy crop insurance protection best suited for their operation.

Project: Production, Financial, and Legal Risk Management for Aquaculture Producers in Florida and South Carolina
Award Amount: $31,501
State(s): Florida and South Carolina

Project Description: This proposal seeks to help Florida and South Carolina aquaculture producers (clams and oysters) identify production and legal liability (casualty) risks to their operations, prepare risk management plans, and take action to protect their operations from these and other risks.

The first objective of this proposal is to increase production risk management by increasing purchases of crop insurance (Micro Farm, Clam Dollar) and increasing participation in FSA disaster programs (NAP, ELAP), where crop insurance policies are not offered. The second objective of this proposal is to increase legal risk management by investigating all casualty insurance and surety bond offerings to increase casualty liability insurance while simultaneously reducing premiums through risk pooling.

There will be three workshops in South Carolina and three workshops in Florida. Each workshop will include three hours of risk management education. Topics covered will be best management practices, record keeping, production risk management, and legal risk management. The project team feels it is reasonable to expect at least 100 producers to participate in the workshops, with one-third (35 producers) implementing changes in their operations. These changes include purchases of crop insurance, participation in USDA FSA disaster programs (NAP, ELAP), and improvements to commercial insurance policies.

Project: Pathways to Small Farm Resilience — Reducing Risk Through Diversification, Peer Learning & Technical Assistance
Award Amount: $155,669
State(s): Michigan

Project Description: The Pathways to Small Farm Resilience program goal is to mitigate producer risks across Northwest Lower Michigan by helping them make sound risk management decisions about enterprise diversification, climate-smart conservation methods, and effective business and marketing practices. This program takes a multi-pronged resilience approach, focusing on production practices, financial acumen, legal compliance, producer wellbeing, marketing, and climate-smart farming. The strategy is four-fold: regenerate, integrate, network, and diversify.

Experienced partners across Northwest Lower Michigan will collaborate on programs in peer planning cohorts, capacity-building for peer-to-peer farmer networks, farm diversification workshops, and technical assistance coaching and navigation.

The program includes 51 events with an estimated total attendance of 694. The audience includes many identified in the grant announcement: traditional farmers; new and beginning farmers; farmers preparing to retire; minority producers; military veterans; women; farmers marketing their products as part of a local/regional food system; livestock producers, organic producers; farmers converting production and marketing systems to pursue new markets; producers that demonstrate and document climate smart ag practices; producers using sustainable and/or regenerative practices; small farms; and value-added producers.

Project: Crop Insurance 101
Award Amount: $1,898,406
State(s): National

Project Description: Develop and promote the mobile-friendly, web-based Farming is Risky Business training platform, which provides lesson plans, content, and highly engaging simulation exercises that are utilized by Ag-Ed instructors, 4-H chapter leaders, and other educators to introduce an array of risk management and crop insurance topics.

Project: RMA Navigator Learning Platform
Award Amount: $242,000
State(s): National

Project Description: Develop and deploy a mobile-friendly, web-based Navigator Learning Platform (NLP) for the purpose of improving the knowledge base of RMA risk management Navigators, who are tasked with providing outreach and technical assistance to underserved farmers and ranchers.

Project: Technology Empowerment Action Measurement
Award Amount: $1,000,000
State(s): Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands

Project Description: The program, T.E.A.M. (Technology Empowerment Action Measurement), educates, measures, and optimizes financial management on a farm-by-farm and ranch-by-ranch basis.

Project: Building On-Farm Climate and Wildfire Resilience in the West - Phase II
Award Amount: $117,637.30
State(s): California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington

Project Description: Farmer Campus’s Phase II program reduces the human, production and financial risks of small producers to wildfire and climate change impacts. After a successful Phase I, Phase II will allow Farmer Campus to deepen our innovative online farmer-to-farmer educational offerings on the West Coast and broaden to meet the needs of Colorado producers. We will reach 790 new producers across CA, WA, OR and CO.
Phase II will be a holistic program for producers facing climate risks in the West. This includes an activity-based climate course, improved tools for wildfire resilience, and disaster financial preparedness for underserved producers. Products include an augmented Case Study Compendium and enhanced Wildfire Workbook to support on-farm preparation and response to climate-related risks. The course and workbook will be updated to include five live workshops, five videos, two field-visit-informed case studies, a cost-benefit analysis tool, culturally relevant illustrations, and an infographic.

Project: Expanding Risk Management Resources and Support for Underserved Organic and Specialty Crop Producers
Award Amount: $92,981
State(s): Iowa

Project Description: This project will provide a group of underserved Iowa farmers outreach, education and technical support to enable them to make sound business decisions and implement available tools, resources and strategies to manage organic production risks on their farms.
The project goals are to: 1) Increase knowledge and understanding of risk management tools and strategies for organic certification and production; including RMA other related USDA resources and programs; 2) Deliver risk management education programs, outreach and resources to Iowa producers and agriculture stakeholders; 3) Create, collect and distribute risk management resources to producers and 4) Evaluate the effectiveness of resources; 5) Provide technical support for farmers seeking support and guidance about crop insurance, lending resources, and production mentorship. These goals will be achieved through a combination of webinars, workshops; on-farm field days, conference/event materials and conversations, direct mail, phone, online resources, and broadcasting through stakeholder networks.

Project: The Iroquois Indian Tribal Crop Insurance Education Program
Award Amount: $48,150
State(s): North Carolina

Project Description: The Iroquois Indian Tribal Confederacy Crop Education Program will facilitate a working relationship and network with members of the North Carolina USDA Agriculture and Crop Insurance Education Partnership Program, Risk Management Association, and the Agriculture and Technical State University to deliver a high-quality, intellectual risk management education training sessions focused on helping every producer to gain access of risk management solutions with core knowledge and successful crop farming risk management tools that will impact and sustain producers to achieve success in the lives of the traditionally under-served communities in Bladen County, North Carolina by delivering crop insurance education and risk management training to U.S. agricultural producers to assist them in identifying and managing production, marketing, legal, financial, and human risk.

The project will conduct 12 risk management educational training sessions for the county producers in farming, livestock, ranching, and other agricultural producers with the dissemination of education information on forage, farming, pasture, rangeland, and crop insurance at the Risk Management Conference. Presentations will be conducted each session in person and live stream via internet from the classroom to directly impact 100 producers with the project's goal to enhance, engage, and develop educational efforts in crop insurance education and related risk management. All 12 live stream risk management educational training sessions will be recorded for all purposes served so producers can consistently review prior sessions to gain a formal understanding of educational concepts and SWOT analysis in crop risk management.

Project: Farm Business Management for the Global Majority
Award Amount: $297,374
State(s): Michigan

Project Description: Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN), Keep Growing Detroit (KGD), Michigan Food and Farming Systems (MIFFS), Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems (CRFS), MSU Extension and Julian Samora Research Institute (JSRI) will collaborate to deliver curriculum for Farm Business Management for the Global Majority training to new-to-early-stage socially disadvantaged producers in Michigan in farm business management.

The online course will consist of 10 modules taking approximately six months. Continuing with what the team learned from years 1 & 2 of the program, the course will continue to address financial and human risks including strategic farm (urban and rural) management, record keeping and accounting basics, financial statements, business development and analysis, loan/lending preparation, using your records for management decisions, addressing structural racism in lending/financing, meeting the needs of historically underserved producers and additional financial education important to these producers.

Project: Transforming Risk Management Education for Traditionally Underserved Groups in the Northern Plains
Award Amount: $277,750
State(s): Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota

Project Description: This project builds on past Risk Management Education partnership programs between RMA along with Montana State University and Fort Peck Community College. Past programs provided basic crop insurance information to underserved groups, mainly including tribal producers, on the usage of Whole Farm Revenue Protection (WFRP) and Pasture, Rangeland, and Forage (PRF). Collaborating with a diverse team of extension personnel from an existing grant program focused on developing new risk management delivery tools through the Climate Hub Partnership, this program will prepare farmers and ranchers to better adapt to extreme weather through utilizing online tools to manage existing crop insurance options. Existing collaborations with Fort Peck Community College, the Rocky Mountain Intertribal Agriculture Council, and the Northern Plains Climate Hub will help target key stakeholders across the region to create a series of face-to-face workshops across the northern plains region to better prepare producers across the region to face future uncertainties and sustain farm and ranch operations for the next generation.

Project: Napa Valley Grapegrowers Risk Management Education: Climate Risk: Climate Smart Agriculture: Organic and Specialty Crops; Crop Insurance
Award Amount: $200,000
State(s): California

Project Description: Napa Valley Grapegrowers (NVG), representing most Napa vineyards and possessing multi-year experience leading results-based projects, seeks to accomplish the project goal of providing climate risk management education in English and Spanish to 710 Napa winegrape producers (target audience), providing topical education/training on: crop insurance 101, alternative fuels, organic & regenerative framing practices, and climate smart agriculture (FCIC Top Priorities).

Objectives include hosting two educational events (300 total attendees), producing 12 educational videos (6 English, 6 Spanish), and launching an educational podcast on climate risk topics (710 total). Expected impacts/results are 710 producers understanding climate smart agriculture and organic practices and emerging risk management tools; with 150 implementing changes. Previous USDA RMA grant-supported efforts trained 3,009 and 2,329 producers, supporting likely success.

Project: Implementing Risk Management and Marketing Plans for Limited Resource and Underserved Producers.
Award Amount: $113,873
State(s): Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee

Project Description: Our model is to conduct a series of workshops where participants will acquire risk management and market analysis skills, and understand their own operations sufficiently, to develop and implement detailed personal risk management plans and strategies for their farms.

Five day-long (6 hours, 30 hours total) workshops will be conducted for producers in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee approximately 30 days apart, with the same producers attending all five workshops. A minimum of 20 producers and 3 educators from each state (80 producers, 12 educators, total) will participate.

Each participant will establish goals in five risk areas (production, marketing, financial, human, legal), and five marketing variables (product, price, place, promotion, people). They will delineate three specific actions to reach each goal. These 30 self-identified actions will produce wide-ranging results depending on individual needs and interests.

Project: Crop Insurance Education for Limited Resource and Underserved Producers of Specialty Crops and Underserved Commodities
Award Amount: $64,790
State(s): Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia

Project Description: Crop insurance education consisting of sequential webinars, homework assignments, and help sessions, will be delivered via a partnership of subject matter experts and extension educators in ten states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.

Producers will attend five (2 hours, 10 hours total) webinars approximately two weeks apart. A minimum of 20 producers and 2 educators from each state (220 total) will participate.

At the conclusion, participants will be able to calculate Cost of Production and APH for their crops, understand the features of Whole Farm Revenue Protection and Micro Farm, distinguish differences between Yield Protection and Revenue Protection, understand good farming practices required for their crops, identify major causes of insurable losses, know their planting dates, where and how to find a crop insurance agent, understand how the loss process works, and understand the purpose of a written agreement and how to apply.

Project: Risk Management Education Using Insurance and Non-Insurance Based Tools for Small-Scale Specialty Crops and Underserved Commodity Producers in Selected Counties in Florida.
Award Amount: $149,600
State(s): Florida

Project Description: The project goal is to continue the expansion and extension of risk management education using selected Insurance and Non-Insurance Based Tools to inform, train, and motivate the targeted beneficiaries to develop and implement sound risk management plans and strategies on their farms, ranches, agricultural businesses, and allied services.

The project targets 150 small and medium-sized socially disadvantaged, women tenant, and veteran producers in Florida. Producers will be trained in using three (3) Insurance-Based tools (Whole-Farm Revenue Protection – WFRP, Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program – NAP, and Livestock Risk Protection - LRP) and five (5) Non-Insurance-Based tools [Product and Enterprise Diversification; Market Diversification; Financial Literacy (Farm Financial Record Keeping, Tax Planning, Cash Flow Management, and Strategic Financial Management); Resilient Fund; and Food Safety Liability with GHP/GAP]. The objectives are (a) to improve the participation of producers in insurance-based risk management products, and (b) use simplified non-insurance-based tools as the foundation for risk mitigation strategies.

Project: Risk Management through Crop Insurance and Climate Smart Agriculture to Increase the Resilience of Farmers of Color in Alabama and Mississippi
Award Amount: $300,000
State(s): Alabama, Mississippi

Project Description: Rural South Institute is collaborating with KTM Consulting, LLC, and other organizations to promote climate-smart agriculture, and deliver risk management education to over 250 producers underserved by crop insurance in Alabama and Mississippi. This project will (1)-promote crop insurance and risk management education opportunities among producers of color; (2)-conduct financial and marketing education to mitigate production, financial, and market risks; (3)-facilitate producer-access to capital and crop insurance programs to enhance the resilience of minority-owned farms; and (4)-develop/implement on-farm demonstrations to promote experiential learning and the adoption of climate-smart agriculture and conservation practices (cover crops, intercropping, no-till, etc.). Outcomes include increased participation in crop insurance and risk management; improved financial and recordkeeping skills; adoption of improved production technologies, and marketing strategies; and increased profitability and farm resilience. The project falls within the Valdosta, Georgia, and Jackson, Mississippi, RMA Regional Offices.

Project: Providing Heirs Property Education and Increasing Financial Literacy for New and Underserved Producers
Award Amount: $107,012
State(s): Georgia

Project Description: Led by Seven Rivers Resource Conservation and Development Council, Team Agriculture Georgia (TAG) is a coalition of government agencies and nonprofit organizations that delivers outreach and education about agricultural programs to undeserved farmers, ranchers, and landowners in Georgia. For this Risk Management Education Partnership Program project, TAG seeks to assist no fewer than 210 new, beginning, and limited-resource producers — primarily focusing on special crop and livestock production — by providing education on business and financial literacy, heirs property and estate planning, and the RMA Micro Farm Program policy. Project will host two in-person workshops and two webinars during the project. In-person workshops will be conducted in collaboration with AgSouth and AgGeorgia Farm Credit and offer education on business and financial literacy. Webinars will be conducted in collaboration with the Georgia Heirs Property Law Center and offer education on available options in Georgia to remediate heirs property and support estate planning. Each event will also devote a portion of the program to informing attendees about the RMA Micro Farm Program.

Project: Nationwide Market Risk Management Training for Cattle Producers
Award Amount: $288,079
State(s): Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, Oregon, Texas

Project Description: In coordination with the Society for Range Management (SRM), Custom Ag Solutions (CAS) will deliver in-person and virtual training workshops to educate farmers and ranchers on weather and price risk; explain Pasture Rangeland and Forage (PRF), Livestock Risk Protection (LRP) and Whole Farm Revenue Protection (WFRP) insurance products; and introduce BeefBasis.com as a decision tool. These training workshops will be in partnership with area extension, livestock associations and other national partners to provide cattle producers with tangible tools to improve their ability to analyze and make informed decisions on LRP, PRF and WFRP.

On-site training workshops will be state based, focused in the key regions of Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas; online trainings will be offered to a nationwide audience. This training is expected to have the following impact/reach: Delivery of 37 onsite training workshops to 3,725 in-person producer attendees; Delivery of 14 virtual trainings, with 1500 live participants and over 6,200 views; Publish/promote with 13 informational contacts in print and online to 61,857 contact distribution,160,648 social media following, and 171,000 expected impressions.

Project: Extending Farm Success in Texas
Award Amount: $114,007
State(s): Texas

Project Description: The project provides 16 learning opportunities and 180 hours of technical assistance in North Texas. Eight virtual workshops will provide education on direct marketing, specialty crop production, Micro Farm crop insurance, climate-smart practices, value-added production, and record keeping. Eight Farmer-to-Farmer Q&A opportunities, both virtual and in-person at a local farm, will enhance community connections among area farmers, most of whom are still beginning farmers. The project also reaches outside North Texas to the Texas Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association (TOFGA) Annual Conference to host 18 in-person workshops on risk management topics that mirror those offered in North Texas. A total of 30 learning opportunities and 180 hours of technical assistance will reach 380 producers at an estimate cost of $300 per producer.

Project: Using Crop Insurance and Other Risk Management Strategies to Manage and Mitigate Farm Risk for Connecticut Farmers and Growers
Award Amount: $189,204
State(s): Connecticut

Project Description: The project includes a series of workshops, many with agricultural organizations, to provide crop insurance information helpful for producers to be able to make informed decisions as to how crop insurance can minimize the impact of crop loss and its impact on the financial health of their business. Several workshops will include other topics including climate mitigation and financial planning.

A crop Insurance app will be designed to help producers avoid missing critical reporting and sales closing dates, and loss/damage requirements. Producers will be able to receive notifications of due dates of policy provisions. Program materials and the app will be translated to Spanish.

Project: Nevada Risk Management Partnership Program
Award Amount: $299,994
State(s): Nevada

Project Description: The “Nevada Risk Management Education Partnership Program” will help producers understand existing and emerging federal crop/livestock insurance programs in Nevada and throughout the West. The project team consists of faculty from the University of Nevada, Reno. Partnerships include Clark County, USDA, American Indian Tribes, Nevada Cattlemen’s Association, and Nevada Farm Bureau. This state-wide and regional project consists of the following programming: American Indian Outreach managing Risk and Federal Crop Insurance; Regional Agriculture Market Outlook and Federal Crop Insurance; Nevada Cattlemen’s Update and Livestock Crop Insurance Education; Urban Agriculture and Local Food Production Mitigating Risk; Specialty Crop Commodities: Honey and Value-add Opportunities. The team will work with RMA and insurance agents to increase knowledge in Crop Insurance 101. This project is a combination of four to six hour workshops in Nevada; and an Urban Ag conference, tribal summit and Specialty Crop/Apiculture Symposium.