Date: 3/31/99

Time: 9:45

Type: Symposium

Number: 233

Using insurance to increase the adoption of refuge acres in Bt corn

*T.J. Buman, Agren, Inc., Carroll, IA 51401
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In order to maintain an acceptable level of European corn borer susceptibility to Bt toxin over the intermediate term (15 or more years), entomologists suggest the use of non-Bt expressing corn "refuges". Current NC 205 recommendations for Bt-corn are for untreated refuges of 20% to 30% of the corn acres and treated refuges of 40% of corn acres. The net revenue gain of Bt over non-Bt corn is considerable, economically enticing farmers to plant 100% of their acres to Bt-corn. As marketplace acceptance of Bt-corn accelerates and seed supplies match the growing demand, voluntary and proximate refuge acres will decline to unacceptable levels. An effective, efficient, and voluntary approach might be to "level" the economic playing field between Bt-corn net revenue and non-Bt refuge acres with a voluntary insurance program provide with the sale of the Bt-corn seed. In essence, the Bt-technology protects the corn crop from physical damage by European corn borer. Similarly, the non-Bt refuge corn crop could be protected financially with an insurance policy that indemnifies the producer for actual damage due to European corn borer. The producer would then have no economic disincentive to refrain from planting the required amount of Bt-refuge acres. Farmers in compliance with Bt refuge regulations would not be at an economic disadvantage to farmers that operated out of compliance. The insurance program would also be a self-documenting system to measure compliance, since insurance benefits would not be given to producers who did not meet refuge requirements in either acreage or proximity.

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