Crop insurance is purchased by farmers to protect themselves against crop failures due to natural disasters, such as floods, hail, and drought. Crop insurance may be subsidized by the government. Farmer spreading grasshopper bait in his alfalfa field. ... A natural disaster is the consequence or effect of a hazardous event, occurring when human activities and natural phenomenon (a physical event, such as a volcanic eruption, earthquake, landslide etc. ... A flood (in Old English flod, a word common to Teutonic languages; compare German Flut, Dutch vloed from the same root as is seen in flow, float) is an overflow of water, an expanse of water submerging land, a deluge. ... Hailstone Hail is a type of graupel (a form of precipitation) composed of balls or irregular lumps of ice. ... A drought is an extended period where water availability falls below the statistical requirements for a region. ... Agricultural policy is a loose term that describes a governments set of laws relating to domestic agriculture and imports of foreign agricultural products. ...
Cropinsurance is a valuable risk management tool that allows growers to insure against losses due to adverse weather conditions, fire, insects, disease, and wildlife.
Higher levels of cropinsurance (buy-up protection) are also federally subsidized, with farmers nationwide paying only 33 to 62 percent of the actual cost of the insurance (depending on the level of coverage selected by the producer).
Multi-peril cropinsurance is available for at least one commodity in every county in Pennsylvania; a total of 22 crops are represented across the state.