Kansas City plays a historic role in worldwide crop insurance discussion

The city becomes the first in the United States to host an important international event centering on agricultural coverage

By Josh Chetwynd

Kansas City, Mo., was the center of the worldwide crop insurance business recently as the state hosted the 33rd annual International Association of Agricultural Production Insurers.

It marked the first time a US city had hosted the event, an honor that was not lost on Tom Zacharias, president of the host organization-- National Crop Insurances Services.

“It was extremely important to host,” Zacharias said. “In terms of agriculture and crop insurance in particular, it was important because just last year the 2014 Farm Bill was passed. It’s safe to say that crop insurance became the cornerstone of the farm safety net with that law and with that as a backdrop it was great to have the International Association of Agriculture Production Insurers here, exchanging ideas about what is happening in the US.”

A highlight of the event, which ran Sept. 27-30, was a speech by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, who discussed the economic and social importance of agriculture as well as the increasing central role crop insurance plays in maintaining farm production, Zacharias said.

Speakers from China, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands also offered international views on the business.

Along with events on the Missouri side of Kansas City, the 280 delegates who attended also visited a soybean and corn farm in Winchester, Kansas. The farm – as well as the choice to have the event in Kansas City – was emblematic of what the US has to offer to the global agricultural community, Zacharias said.

“I think this particular farm was very representative of the Midwest, where the majority of the crop insurance business is located,” he said. “Kansas City is the heartland of the country. You are on the border of two states” in Missouri and Kansas that represent the corn belt and the wheat belt.  
 

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