USDA ANNOUNCES AWARDS FOR PASTURE, RANGELAND, AND FORAGE DEVELOPMENT

Contact: James Callan (202) 720-8812
Savonne Caughey (202) 720-6200

WASHINGTON, Aug 12, 2004 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced today that the Risk Management Agency (RMA) has awarded four contracts to develop new risk management tools for pasture, rangeland and forage.

The Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000 (ARPA) authorized the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) to enter into contracts for research and development to increase participation in states, areas and agricultural commodities that are underserved by the federal crop insurance program. ARPA also directed FCIC to establish the development of a pasture, rangeland and forage program as one of the highest research and development priorities.

“I am pleased to announce today that the USDA’s Risk Management Agency has awarded four contracts for the development of new and very innovative risk management solutions for insuring pasture, rangeland, forage and hay,” said Dr. J.B. Penn, under secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services, during remarks to the summer meeting of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association in Denver, CO. “We recognize that farmers and ranchers have been encouraging the development of a forage and rangeland insurance initiative and we are pleased to announce this very important initial step.”

The four RMA contracts, which are national in scope, are for the following:

• New Plan for Pasture/Rangeland and Dryland Hay awarded to Watts and Associates based in Montana. This proposal will seek to develop a viable risk management tool by employing a dual index consisting of a satellite based vegetative index and a proxy crop.
• Temperature Constrained NDVI Index, awarded to Grazingland Management Systems, Inc. located in Texas. NDVI stands for Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and utilizes data derived from satellite-based remote sensing imagery that will describe the seasonal growth dynamics of vegetation for target areas.
• Seasonal Growth Constrained Rainfall Index, awarded to Grazingland Management Systems, Inc. The Seasonal Growth Constrained Rainfall Index is based on a combination of a weighted warm-season/cool-season indexing period and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration rainfall data system.
• Precipitation Index, awarded to AgriLogic, Inc. based in Texas and Kansas. This proposal will utilize a rainfall index, based on a weighted average amount of precipitation during a particular time period at a particular weather station.

Once these contract proposals are completed, the developers will provide their product to the RMA for review. Upon completion of its review, RMA will submit the products to the FCIC Board of Directors for its consideration of expert review and final approval by the Board. The final approved products are planned for either 2006 or 2007 crop year implementation.

Information will also be available on the RMA web site: http://www.rma.usda.gov