Roles, Cost, and Criteria for Assessing Agriculture Disaster Assistance Programs Between 1980 and 1988

Gao ID: T-RCED-90-37 March 6, 1990

GAO discussed the federal government's responses to natural agricultural disasters, focusing on: (1) the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) role in providing agricultural disaster assistance since 1980; (2) criteria for assessing federal agricultural disaster assistance; and (3) how well current programs met those criteria. GAO noted that: (1) USDA provided about $17.6 billion in disaster assistance between 1980 and 1988, through cash payments, subsidized emergency loans, and crop insurance; and (2) its eight criteria for assessing disaster assistance programs were based on equity and efficiency. GAO also noted that the crop insurance program: (1) met more of the criteria than other forms of disaster assistance; (2) suffered from low participation rates and competition with other disaster assistance; and (3) was only appropriate for compensating victims of crop losses, so other forms of assistance would be more suitable for other disaster-caused damages.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: John W. Harman Team: General Accounting Office: Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division Phone: (202) 512-5138


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