Crop Insurance Administrator Issues Agency Review
January 25th, 2007 by David Graves
On January 3, 2007, Eldon Gould, Administrator of the Risk Management Agency (RMA), the Department of Agriculture agency with responsibility for running the Federal Crop Insurance Program, issued his first annual agency review, which covers operations for 2006. Mr. Gould only recently completed his first year in his current position.
The review provides a long list of activities and actions by agency personnel and the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) Board of Directors. In part, Mr. Gould said, “We recognize that RMA is a critical component of the safety net for the business of agriculture in this country.” He went on to say, “In 2007, we will continue to strive toward providing a useful, practical safety net for America’s farmers and ranchers.”
Mr. Gould appears to be off to a good start in his tenure as the RMA Administrator. Successfully managing the complex crop insurance program and its related rules and regulations and agency operations is not, however, an easy job. But his experience as a practicing farmer certainly helps Mr. Gould know what will and what will not work back home on the farm. In the end, that is what RMA should be about—making the crop insurance program function at maximum value to farmers as a risk management tool. The “open door” management style that Mr. Gould follows is a great benefit in his quest.
He will have to strive every day to avoid the pull and tug of the “Washington bureaucracy” dimming the natural vision and understanding he brought with him from the farm. That task, however, is a formidable challenge. Continuously drawing on the knowledge and experience of the leaders of the crop insurance companies and agencies, who work every day as his partners in the federal program, will provide Mr. Gould with an invaluable source of information. After all, of all of the people Mr. Gould will visit with, work with and seek counsel from, no one will have a greater interest in RMA succeeding in providing a highly beneficial federal crop insurance program to America’s farmers, ranchers and growers than the people who constitute the private sector delivery system for the program.
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