This project advances the 7TH pillar of the secretary's farmers first policy to enhance risk management and business planning tools to ensure small family farmers and ranchers as well as beginning…

This project advances the 7TH pillar of the secretary's farmers first policy to enhance risk management and business planning tools to ensure small family farmers and ranchers as well as beginning farmer and ranchers (BFR) can start and stay in business for generations to come; simultaneously IT advances priorities in the one big beautiful bill act. The project will evaluate credit access and availability of risk management tools to understand barriers to starting and keeping small family farms viable. The availability of crop insurance is particularly important for farmers and ranchers, as those with federal crop insurance often qualify for credit with lower interest rates - because crop insurance decreases the bank's farm loan risk. This project will analyze the demand for federal crop insurance by small family farmers and ranchers and BFR, as well as access to credit among USDA-FSA borrowers by geographic region. The project will deliver an insurance decision tool that small family farmers and BFR can use to understand and make business decisions on federal crop insurance - in particular, on whole farm revenue insurance plans - and on obtaining access to credit. The project also includes an analysis of crop insurance participation data for products which provide risk protection for the majority of small family farms and bfrs, identification of geographic region areas via credit deserts and/or limited access to farm debt, and development of fact sheets on the characteristics of small family farm producers and bfrs that are actively engaged in the agricultural loan market.