Unlike traditional crop insurance, in which indemnity payments are linked to individual farmer yields and losses, index insurance links payments to independently established data, such as local rainfall, wind speed, temperature, typhoons, cyclones and
historical yield data as trigger events to release payments and compensation to affected farmers and fisherfolk.
The Kwinana West project, coordinated by the Kondinin Group, highlighted if growers already had good quality
historical yield and soil data, they might not need to incur the initial costs of doing EM and Gamma radiometrics surveys to reap the rewards of VRT adoption for crop zones.
Hazel Bograd, Monsanto data science and analytics manager for Asia Pacific, says that in the context of farming, data science helps make sense of complex interactions that happen on the field by bringing together resources such as
historical yield data, climate imagery, and information on soil and moisture.
Supply is a function of yield per acre and arable land under cultivation and although
historical yield per acre for many crops including corn has increased, the yield change is not consistent year over year or ever increasing, and does decline from time to time.
Previous studies that supported the 4% rate used
historical yield data that don't look anything like what new retirees are facing today.
Starting with the 2012 crop year, farmers raising corn and soybeans in most counties in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio and Wisconsin will have an option to use the trend-adjusted APH based on their county's
historical yield trend.
Historical yield growth, capital growth, local services in an area, and transport links are all additional factors to keep in mind.
Increased yields, measured against
historical yield data, are expected to materially increase as capital improvements and enhancements to land management practices are made.
In a 2002 to 2006 study led by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA scientists, Ainsworth, ARS plant physiologist Fitz Booker, and university scientists investigated widespread ozone damage to soybeans in Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana using ozone surface monitors, satellite instruments, and
historical yield data.
This typically means that a calamity is generally only declared when the crop yield is less than half of the normal
historical yield for the district.
Past "Money Matters" columns have covered using
historical yield data to properly calibrate the "grid.
The result is a model-generated yield curve that matches the shape of the
historical yield curve, but exhibits less volatility in long rates.
