Presentation at 2012 eXtension conference, Oklahoma City

1. The AGR-Lite Wizard:
Case Study of the Value of Interactive Software
Tools for Farmer and Ranchers
Jeff Schahczenski, Agricultural Economist
National Center for Appropriate Technology

2. THE NCAT MISSION
Helping People by championing small-scale, local, and sustainable
solutions to reduce poverty, promote healthy communities, and
protect natural resources.
www.ncat.org

3. ATTRA National Sustainable Agriculture
Information System
Need help with flame weeding?
Are you ready to start selling
your produce at the farmers
market? Need some help with
any sustainable-Ag issue?
Simply call our English-language
ATTRA toll-free hotline at
800-346-9140 or the Spanish-
language ATTRA hotline at
800-411-3222 for expert advice.
...or use the Ask An Ag Expert
tool to send us a note.

4. Sustainability-Resilient Diversity
“In every deliberation, we
must consider the impact
on the seventh
generation... even if it
requires having skin as
thick as the bark of a
pine.” —Great Law of the
Iroquois”
– Resiliency
– Diversity
– Adaptable
– Interdependence

5. Outline
• Brief overview of the problem- crop insurance-crops vs.
whole farm revenue
• Motivation of the project- the AGR-lite Wizard
• Brief demonstration of the software tool
• What we learned and what we continue to learn
• Other examples
• Summary
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6. Why Insure Crops and Livestock?
Multiple Perils:
unavoidable natural occurrences
Including :
adverse weather
fire
Insects
disease
wildlife
earthquakes,
volcanic eruption
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7. Why Insure Crops and Livestock?

8. Why Insure Crops?- Price Volitility
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9. Field Corn Crop Insurance

10. Fresh Market Tomatoes Crop Insurance

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12. Important National Benefit for Agriculture
• Recently predicted that the
federal subsidization of
crop Insurance premiums
could be close to $9 Billion
dollars per year through
2022.
• Average premium benefit is
about 62% of the cost.
• In 2011 over $11 Billion
paid out in losses
• In 2012 could be as high as
$22 Billion!

13. Is Good Crop Insurance for Small Diverse
Farms Possible?
• “Good”- meaning
reasonably priced and
with effective coverage
• “Good”- meaning as
good as current
commodity or specialty
crop-based policies

14. Is Whole Farm Revenue Insurance an answer?

15. Why Whole Farm Revenue Insurance
Adjusted Gross Revenue Lite
• Crops with no Multi-Peril (Yield) or Revenue Insurance
• Commodities with premium prices
• Organic and specialty crops
• Varietal differences in yield and price
• Provides for quality losses
• Livestock

16. MOTIVATION of Project
Several reasons given as to why the use of AGR-Lite has been
so low among farmers. Some of the reasons given are:
• COMPLEXITY: AGR-Lite requires farmers to have in place a fairly high-level and
extensive farm and financial recordkeeping system to be able to meet application
requirements .
• OUTREACH: The product is still not available nationally and some farmers may
simply not know that the product is available in their state.
• LIMITATIONS: The level of coverage may be too low and deductibles too high to
interest farmers. The effective coverage for AGR-Lite is 72% so that a 28% drop in
revenue could be experienced before any coverage is provided. A 28% drop in
revenue may effectively put a farmer out of business.
• LIMITATIONS: Commercial crop insurance agents find writing and filling claims for
AGR-Lite complicated and very time consuming causing them to not promote the
product to potential costumers.
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17. AGR-Lite Wizard
• CD available for PC (no Mac version) - Sept. 15th for 2013
• www.agrlitewizard.com
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18. SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT IS HARD
• ENGAGE farmers(end
users)– from the start
• Listen carefully to their
needs (eligibility vs details)
• Extensive proto-type
testing– get expertise, use
real farmers
• NEW VERSIONS will be
needed– IT overhead is real
cost
• Good GRAHICS really help
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19. Critical Improvements
• Coverage too low- or deductable to high
• Premium costs do not decline with diversity
• Application process and information intensity
needed to be lowered---AGR-lite Wizard helps
• Whole farm revenue should be available nationwide
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20. Other Examples and Needs?
• Food Safety Plan
• Conservation
Management Tool

21. SOFTWARE can change the world
2012 Senate Farm Bill
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22. Summary
• Understanding of complexity can
be enhanced by user-directed
software tools
• User-directed software tools allow
the user to choose how much and
how little they want to understand
complexity
• Knowledge is power and it helps
with farmer /government
bureaucracy interaction
• Understanding can help
constructive democratic change
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