FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 25, 1996
CONTACT: Dana Hagerty 202/225-2165
WASHINGTON, DC -- “Due to the large amounts of rainfall that parts of the 7th District received over the last several years, and after several meetings I had with U.S. Department of Agriculture officials, USDA has agreed to changes in the Nonstandard Classification System (NCS) for wheat farmers in 11 counties in the 7th District for the 1997 crop year,” Congressman Collin C. Peterson (DFL-7th District) announced today. The counties included in this are Becker, Clay, Clearwater, Kittson, Mahnomen, Marshall, Norman, Pennington, Polk, Red Lake, and Roseau.
NCS is a system to identify producers who have experienced losses significantly higher and with greater frequency than the majority of producers in their area. “NCS has been pushed by Members of Congress who, in my opinion, are hostile to the crop insurance program,” Peterson said.
“Putting these farmers from this area of the 7th District into this non-standard classification has made crop insurance unaffordable and affected many of the farmers’ ability to get loans through no fault of their own,” Peterson continued.
“However, as a result of a number of meetings I have had with Federal Crop Insurance officials, they have agreed to change the NCS selection criteria for farmers in these counties, which will remove more than half of the new producers from the NCS listing as well as some producers who have been previously listed in NCS,” Peterson said. “This decision means that the insurance premiums for many of these farmers, which increased because of their NCS designation, will go back down.
“This decision is a step in the right direction, but we still need to do more,” Peterson said. “I have been working hard to convince USDA to add Minnesota farmers to the Crop Revenue Coverage (CRC) pilot program, which encourages producers to better manage their production while giving them a necessary safety net as farm subsidies decline. The CRC pilot program also limits government involvement in these decisions. I will continue to fight to get Minnesota farmers included in this program.”