As crop insurance deadlines loom for spring planted crops, a new crop insurance decision aid tool has been developed to help producers decide what coverage to purchase. 

This web-based tool, created by the Agricultural and Food Policy Center (AFPC) at Texas A&M University, enables producers to evaluate all available crop insurance decisions for major commodities, taking price and yield risk into consideration. 

Co-Director of the center Joe Outlaw, Ph.D., announced the availability of the 2016 AFPC Crop Insurance Decision Aid recently at the Texas Wheat Producers Board meeting. 

Outlaw says the tool helps producers sift through the thousands of options available for types of crop insurance and coverage levels by incorporating enterprise units, optional units and yield exclusions, as well as the shallow loss programs through the STAX and Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) plans.

“It is a way for producers to ‘fine tune’ their decisions and be more educated on their options before they sit down with their crop insurance agent,” Outlaw says. 

Because this 2016 AFPC Crop Insurance Decision Aid follows the AFPC 2014 Farm Bill Decision Aid created prior to the farm bill process last year, producers may use their existing login and password information, or they can register a new account if they have not previously used any AFPC decision aids. The Crop Insurance Decision Aid is available at www.afpc.tamu.edu in the top left corner of the webpage, located under the “current projects” headline. 

The center also offers one-on-one help for those who may have trouble inputting their data. For questions or concerns about the decisions aid, contact the center by phone at (979) 845-5913 or by email at [email protected]. 

For more information on the Texas Wheat Producers Board, visit http://www.texaswheat.org.