Tropical Systems Spin Up Mid-South Crop Insurance Rates

Farmers in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, pay four to six times more for crop insurance than their counterparts in the upper Midwest, and Hunter Biram wanted to know why.

It’s a question that’s been in Biram’s head since his dissertation days at Kansas State University.

Now a Ph.D. extension economist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, Biram, along with co-authors Cameron-Harp, agricultural economist, and Jesse Tack, professor of Agricultural Economics, both of Kansas State, have some answers.

The result of their research — Measuring the impact of hurricane incidence on agricultural production risk using insurance data — was published in late July in the field’s top journal, the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.