This article focuses on innovation in weather insurance designed to fit the special circum-stances of the poor in lower income countries where rural and agricultural financial markets are largely underdeveloped. Index insurance is an innovation that circumvents many of the fundamental problems...

This paper presents a methodology for adding longer series of weather data to short series on Yield data for the purpose of Improving knowledge about crop Yield risk Findings demonstrate that the weather during the past 33 years provide Yield forecast with significantly less risk than the past...

U.S. farmers have for years relied on the financial support of both federally funded crop insurance and direct disaster assistance. Limits on availability of federal funds dictate that programs less costly to the government than disaster programs but more effective than past crop insurance...

Many Americans believe that farmers place great value on stewardship and accordingly follow sound environmental practices. This belief has become a stumbling block to developing policies that address environmental issues. The stewardship myth, having evolved from the earliest days of our nation...