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National Alfalfa Alliance D.C. fly-in focuses on research funding and crop insurance

The National Alfalfa and Forage Alliance continues to stress the importance of alfalfa to Washington lawmakers.

President Beth Nelson tells Brownfield the Alliance recently completed its tenth D.C. fly-in.

“A lot of lawmakers are not familiar with the fact that (alfalfa) is such a valuable crop on the agricultural landscape. So really what we’re trying to get is parity in public research, both at the land grant institutions and the agricultural research services.”

She says there are also ongoing efforts to get parity in terms of crop insurance.

“We only have two products, and one of them is a very good product. It’s the Forage Seeding product. The other is our APH program, which is a pretty dismal crop insurance product. Less than 10 percent of our acres are enrolled in it nationwide.”

Nelson says the Alliance is working with RMA to expand the Forage Seeding product.