Napa winegrape producers represent 99% of Napa’s agricultural production and due to wildfire and market volatility have an urgent need for risk management education. Producers had $1 billion in loss as a result of 2020’s wildfires and many producers continue to be underserved by crop insurance and are uninsured/underinsured. Insured producers have faced difficulty in recouping losses due to inadequate records. Through this project, Napa Valley Grapegrowers (NVG) provided training/education focused on helping mitigate these risks for winegrape producers on Record Keeping; Technical Assistance; Crop Insurance, and Financial Risk.
NVG helped producers implement flexible decision making to minimize risks and improve economic viability. NVG provided education to 946 winegrape producers (736 in-person/hybrid/webinar plus 210 additional producers via online viewing of presentations) through a 2-day risk management conference, educational video on managing risks through crop insurance/record keeping, a technical assistance program on smoke taint/smoke exposure, and a 3-part webinar on financial/loan management and market conditions. Results/impacts were significant with 79% planning to evaluate future smoke taint testing, 76% stating they will invest in crop insurance to better protect their vineyard from risk, and 75% stating they will implement the financial management lessons learned to increase farm stability through the webinar.