Our growers and our bankers need strong risk management tools like crop insurance that are essential in order to secure operating loans to grow our crop. With more frequent and intense weather patterns, rising interest rates and production costs and lower commodity prices our risk has gone up while our balance sheets have gone down. We simply have to have affordable crop insurance to manage those risks.

"Crop insurance is so vital to this state; so vital to every crop in (Texas). Whether it be corn, wheat, or cotton, all of the crops come very much into play when it comes to crop insurance."

"When there's a crop loss there's going to be a loss of income on the farm but with a good crop insurance program, and working capital, we may help them farm another year.

If premium support is reduced or capped farmers will choose to go to a lower crop insurance level to cut some of their costs and they are going to assume more of the risks themselves.

"As is the case with other insurance policies, we purchase crop insurance in the hope that we never have to use it. And, when disaster strikes, we use the policy to pay our bills. It isn't close to what we would collect from a healthy crop, but it allows us to keep farming."

"Prices are also low today, but modern crop insurance takes the fear out of farming. No wonder crop insurance is the top policy priority for most farmers in this upcoming farm bill."

"Crop insurance is something you hope you never have to use. It doesn't pay for the total cost of planting a crop of wheat. But it will keep farmers in business for the next season - and that's the whole point of a safety net."

"No crop insurance program will make a grower devastated by a natural disaster financially 'whole' but it will allow them to survive a devastating loss and continue to support the economic engine of rural America."

"In the highly uncertain business of farming, any certainty we can get is of tremendous value to us. This is also why crop insurance is so valuable - because of its rock-solid certainty."

"I think the crop insurance program has been a pretty incredible program. It's worked really well."

"Prior to a viable crop insurance program we did have a lot of ad hoc disaster assistance that was very, very difficult for members of Congress to deal with."

"(Crop insurance) is vital to farmers ... they need that safety net of both the risk of production and pricing ... and I hope that we can even continue that and enhance that."

"Without question, the most important USDA program is federal crop insurance, and I'm not alone in that belief. Crop insurance offers risk protection to many agricultural commodities."

"I Believe crop insurance is stronger today for the obstacles it has faced in recent years and most importantly, it is ready to meet tomorrow's challenges."

"I use crop insurance as a safety net to protect my assets in case of a fallout disaster. Younger producers use it to go to the bank to borrow for operating loans and tell them, 'I'm protected.'"