science

Risk Management Agency

Risk Management Agency is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Risk Management Agency rather than just read about it. In short: The Risk Management Agency (RMA) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which manages the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC).

Risk Management Agency — illustration

Key takeaways

Risk Management Agency belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Risk Management Agency to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Risk Management Agency from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Risk Management Agency (RMA) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which manages the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC). The current Administrator is Heather Manzano in an acting capacity.

History The Risk Management Agency (RMA) was created in 1996 by the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 to operate and manage the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC). The FCIC was created in 1938, during the Great Depression, to provide insurance for farmers to allow them to profit from crop production even under difficult agricultural and economic circumstances. Many American farmers were forced to leave their farms as a result of the Dust Bowl during this period.

Programs, structure, staff, and budget The Risk Management Agency (RMA) has three program areas: Insurance Services, which provides federal crop insurance to American farmers; Product Management, which develops and reviews crop insurance products to ensure actuarial soundness; and Compliance, which monitors federal crop insurance programs for fraud, waste, and abuse. The RMA is managed by an Administrator appointed by the United States Secretary of Agriculture. The RMA Administrator serves as the non-voting manager of the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation Board. The RMA employs Deputy Administrators to manage each of the three program areas, as well as a Chief Financial Officer, Chief Information Officer, a Director of the Office of Civil Rights, and a Director of the Office of External Affairs. There are ten RMA regional offices around the country. The RMA employs more than 450 people in offices around the country. The RMA had an operating budget of $74.8 million during Fiscal Year 2016, and managed more than $102 billion in insurance liability during 2015.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Risk Management Agency

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Risk Management Agency claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Risk Management Agency before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Risk Management Agency ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Risk Management Agency

In research: Risk Management Agency appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Risk Management Agency in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Risk Management Agency is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Agricultural economics, Risk management in business, United States Department of Agriculture agencies, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Risk Management Agency outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Risk Management Agency in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Risk Management Agency means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Risk Management Agency out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Risk Management Agency in simple terms?

The Risk Management Agency (RMA) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which manages the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC).

Why does Risk Management Agency matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Risk Management Agency?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Risk Management Agency.