出版社：Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD)
摘要：Congress has once again passed a disaster assistance program for farmers. This time the drought of 2001 and 2002 was the rationale for the legislation. (For a review of the build-up to the current disaster aid package, see "Disaster Assistance: How Best to Pay When Nature Has Her Way," in the Fall 2002 Iowa Ag Review, available at www.card.iastate.edu/iowa_ag_review/fall_02/article4.aspx.) In 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001, the rationale was low market prices. The current disaster assistance program pays crop farmers if their harvested yield was less than 65 percent of the average yield. The cost of the crop assistance package is estimated at about $2.1 billion. While this might seem relatively modest, it is important to recognize that the crop insurance program will pay out more than $4 billion in 2002, and it paid out almost $3 billion in 2001.
