A strategic risk management program for agriculture

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how an organized framework for risk management called Risk Navigator SRM© can be practically applied to common risk management problems. Design/methodology/approach – The program makes complex risk principles easier to understand and access by linking together disparate and difficult risk management concepts into a single strategic risk management (SRM) framework. The strategic framework is organized into ten steps in order to organize and develop a practical and applied risk management plan. This paper demonstrates the SRM process in a crop insurance example. A simple version of the program, called Risk Navigator Lite©, is also applied to crop insurance to demonstrate how robust the framework is for adaptation to field settings, where data may be limited or where decision makers might have limited capacity to understand complicated principles necessary for risk management. Findings – This manuscript elaborates upon how the SRM process may be effectively implemented by agricultural producers. The information herein should also help students of risk management better comprehend how to apply what they learn. Originality/value – The contribution of Risk Navigator is to make underused, sophisticated risk management concepts and tools more available to farm and ranch managers, and others, by putting them into a framework that is both easy to use and comprehensive.