Risk Management Partnership Agreements (RMA)

Advancing research and development, education, and community outreach on agricultural risk management strategies

Program Basics
The USDA's Risk Management Agency offers Partnership Agreements (RMA) to advance its work in three program areas: Product Management, Education, and Community Outreach.

Product Management: The Product Management Research Partnerships fund qualified public and private organizations to research and develop non-insurance risk management tools. For example, these tools may include decision support tools to assist producers in mitigating a range of risks including climate, pests, and disease for crops and livestock. Currently, no new projects or funding opportunities are expected to be announced. Projects funded in previous years are still under development.

Education: The Commodity Small Session Partnerships for Risk Management Education and the Crop Insurance Education in Targeted States are aimed at educating producers about how to use financial management, crop insurance, marketing contracts, and other existing and emerging risk management tools. The Targeted States program delivers crop insurance education and information through cooperative agreements to producers in sixteen states that have been specifically designated as historically underserved with respect to crop insurance.

Outreach: The Community Outreach and Assistance Partnership Program aims to ensure that information and training on how to use risk management tools and strategies are effectively targeted to women, limited-resource, socially disadvantaged, and other traditionally underserved producers, ranchers and beginning farmers. The RMA maintains an active presence in collaborating with the partners it funds to implement the work designated by its agreements.

Risk management tools aren't limited to insurance products, but include a variety of risk management options and strategies to assist producers in mitigating risks inherent in agricultural production. They may include financial management tools to mitigate price and production risks; tools to enhance measurement and prediction of risks in order to facilitate risk diversification; and tools to improve production management, harvesting, record keeping, and marketing.

Project Examples

Product Management Agreements

• The Rodale Institute received two grants. One was to expand the geographic scope of the Organic Price Index. The second was to develop an Organic Transition Simulation Model to help farmers analyze a wide variety of risk factors and costs when considering a transition to organic. The free 15-hour course is available at: http://www.tritrainingcenter.org/course/
• Agrilogic, Inc. was funded to develop a dynamic risk management decision tool designed to offer the ranching industry a web-based forage risk assessment tool. It provides producers a means to monitor and assess the performance of free-grazing animals, the forage conditions in response to site-specific weather and the potential least-cost feeding or destocking decisions relative to market and weather risk.
• The Southeast Climate Consortium through the University of Florida have developed AgroClimate. AgroClimate is an interactive website with climate, agriculture, and forestry information that allows users to assess resource management options with respect to their probable outcomes under forecast climate conditions. AgroClimate uses crop simulation models along with historic and forecast climate data to allow decision makers to compare changes in probable outcomes under different climate conditions.

Commodity Partnerships for Risk Management Education

• Maryland Nursery and Landscape Association is training over 500 horticulture specialty crop growers on how to utilize effective production and marketing strategies. This includes training them on emerging risk management tools such as integrated pest management and weed control solutions, along with financial management and crop insurance. The grant awarded this group was $10,000.

Crop Insurance Education and Information Programs in Targeted States

• The University of Nevada-Reno received a grant in the amount of $207,556. Through this grant the University is delivering crop and livestock insurance educational programming.

Community Outreach and Assistance Partnership Agreements

• In Minnesota, a project targeted to Hmong, Latino, Native, and African American farmers will provide legal education and training.
• A project in Appalachia will support limited resource farmers in the region in accessing and operating in growing markets for locally grown food.
• A California project targeting limited resource farmers, as well as food service personnel and students, will fund a two-day national conference on building new markets.

A complete listing of 2008 agreements can be found at the following websites:

• Education: www.rma.usda.gov/news/2008/10/2008targetedstates.pdf
• Outreach: www.rma.usda.gov/news/2008/10/2008outreach.pdf

Application and Financial Information
Application information is available at the RMA website at www.rma.usda.gov. Applicants may also request application materials from the contacts listed below.

Education and Outreach Agreements are for up to 1 year. Product Management Partnership Agreements may last up to 3 years. Except for Education Agreements, wherein levels are partially determined by formulas explained in the application materials, these agreements have no maximum or minimum funding levels. In 2007 and 2008 there was no new funding for Product Management Research Partnerships. In 2008 Outreach awarded fifty partnership agreements for $4,087,497 to educate women, limited-resource, and other traditionally under-served farmers and ranchers. Education awarded $5,000,000 in Education Partnership Agreements, including $4.5 million for the Targeted States Program for crop insurance education in 16 historically underserved states.

Eligibility, Uses, and Restrictions
For all three programs, individuals are ineligible to apply. Eligible applicants for the Research Partnerships are all colleges and universities; federal, state and local agencies; nonprofit and for-profit private organizations; or corporations and other entities.

For both kinds of Education Partnerships, eligible applicants include state departments of agriculture, universities, nonprofit agricultural organizations, and other public or private organizations able to lead a local program of risk management or crop insurance education. For the Outreach Partnerships, eligible applicants include educational institutions; community-based organizations; and associations of farmers, ranchers and other nonprofit organizations with demonstrated abilities to develop and implement risk management and other marketing options for priority commodities.

Partnership agreement funds may not be used for building or equipment purchases, rental or repair, to repair or maintain privately owned vehicles, or to prepare a partnership agreement application.

Website
www.rma.usda.gov/aboutrma/agreements

Contact
Kristin Chow
Product Management Research Partnerships
Phone (816) 926-6399; Fax (816) 926-7343
E-mail: kristin.chow@rma.usda.gov

Lydia Astorga
Commodity Small Sessions Partnerships for Risk Management Education and the Crop Insurance Education in Targeted States
Phone (202) 260-4728; Fax (202) 690-3605
E-mail: Lydia.Astorga@rma.usda.gov

David Wiggins
Community Outreach and Assistance Partnerships
Phone (202) 690-2686
E-mail: david.wiggins@rma.usda.gov

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