Serving the Continuing Education Needs of Crop Insurance Agents

Crop insurance is an important risk management strategy for farmers. Proposed changes in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Multi-peril Crop Insurance (MPCI) program in 1994 created considerable anxiety among farmers, lenders, agribusiness, and crop insurance agents. In addition, the proposed changes altered opportunities for risk management and, consequently, planning decisions. An Extension conference in Fargo, North Dakota was developed to educate these groups about the economic implications of alternative program designs.

Major presentations at the first conference included a discussion of crop insurance innovations, the new Group Risk Plan (GRP), a review and critique of Canada's insurance programs, a panel of regional farm leaders, a presentation by Federal Crop Insurance Corportation's (FCIC) administrator, and comments from North Dakota's U.S. Congressman and Senators. The conference was widely advertised and attended by 210 participants from four surrounding states. Overall evaluation of the conference was 5.82 on a scale of 1=poor and 7=very beneficial.

This general educational conference has evolved over time into a targeted program of continuing education for crop insurance agents across the region. The annual fee-based program, now in its fourth year, draws more than 200 agents from Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota, filling a need that likely prevails in other regions. Extension specialists and agents need to respond to this important risk management issue, especially in light of declining farm program payments. This paper illustrates the program and describes key features leading to success.

Immediately after invitations to the first conference were sent, one crop insurance agent called to inquire if the conference offered continuing education credit. Agents in North Dakota, for example, are required to obtain a minimum of 6 hours of credit annually. Many crop insurance companies offer programs of continuing education. However, state insurance departments strongly encourage agents to obtain a significant portion of their credits from impartial sources that are not company affiliated. Few such opportunities exist. The agent indicated that the opportunity to receive credit would greatly increase interest in the event. In response, credit for the first conference was hastily applied for and received.

Based on the success of the first conference, a second follow-on conference was organized. Although Crop Insurance Reform legislation was passed by Congress, many implementation details were unresolved. Therefore, another forum was deemed necessary to provide agents, farmers, and agribusinesses with the necessary planning information they required to formulate planting and resource decisions for the coming season.

Specific presentations at the second general conference included a presentation by USDA administrators on Crop Insurance Reform; a reaction panel of farmers and industry personnel; an introduction to new crop insurance, crop yield futures/options, and revenue assurance products; and an update on current farm policy in Washington, DC. Continuing education credit was applied for and received. Surprisingly, crop insurance agents comprised the majority of the audience. Evaluations were still positive but lower than the previous conference (5.04 overall score).

Given the strong demand expressed by crop insurance agents for continuing education, a steering committee of representative crop insurance firms and agents was assembled to assist in refocusing. General committee consensus was that a specific conference targeted solely to crop insurance agents for purposes of providing continuing education would be of highest value.

Although diverse audiences of past conferences met existing needs at the time, participants other than agents were apparently getting their crop insurance program information from other sources. In addition, the mixed nature of the audience created complications. The possibility of having a customer of a crop insurance agent in attendance stymied agents from actively participating in the conference and asking technical/production questions that may embarrass them.

The steering committee was adamant that a program of high quality be maintained. The committee felt that conference registration fees should be tripled, at a minimum, and the additional proceeds be used to attract speakers of higher quality/national stature and to improve the conference atmosphere/administration.

In terms of subject matter, the committee indicated a strong demand on the part of agents for a technical update on new farming methods. Many agents apparently do not have the direct connections to active modern farming operations as they had in the past--yet are expected to be knowledgeable of current practices.

A program was developed following the steering committee's suggestions and included a discussion of the risk implications of the new farm program, an introduction to new risk management products available to farmers (options/futures), an overview of weather information/ modification, an assessment of Crop Insurance Reform to date, and presentations by FCIC administrators and North Dakota's U.S. Congressman and Senators.

Although these general topics are similar to past conferences, the presentations were of higher quality and detail- -tailored especially for agents. The third conference was deemed a success with more than 200 crop insurance agents participating. Evaluations of the conference rated the event 5.63 on the same scale of 1-7.

Despite significant changes in both programming and audience composition over time, demand for and interest in the conference continues to escalate. Several key features of the conference help explain this success.

First, structuring the program to obtain continuing education certification led to the identification of a target audience that was undeserved by commercial vendors. The audience is almost captive in nature. Second, adaptive program planning insured conference topics were of keen and timely interest to participants. Even though the audience may have been captive, the program had to capture their interest if they were going to participate in future events.

Third, scheduling of the event proved critical. By scheduling the conference on a holiday when the U.S. Congress is in recess, the chances of obtaining national speakers from Congress, the administration, or industry were greatly increased. Finally, industry participants have high expectations for professional administration of the conference. They place great value on overall organization/logistics and details like attractive name tags, programs, decorating, and room environment.

This program does not imply a diminished need for crop insurance educational programs targeted to farmers. Quite the contrary, recent farm program and weather pattern changes have heightened such a need. Our experience suggests that these two clientele groups have diverse programming needs/expectations.

This article described the evolution of a crop insurance continuing education conference that was modified over time in response to client need. Increasing risk in production agriculture due to declining farm program payments, coupled with targeted expansion of crop insurance programs nationwide, creates a need for similar programs of continuing crop insurance education in other regions of the country.

This article describes a general educational conference that has evolved into a targeted program of continuing education for crop insurance agents. The annual fee-based program, now in its fourth year, draws more than 200 agents from Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The paper describes the need for the program and describes key features of program structure, scheduling, and adaptive planning that have lead to success.