The Fourth International Agricultural Risk, Finance, and Insurance Conference (IARFIC)

The Waterloo Research Institute in Insurance, Securities and Quantitative Finance (WatRISQ), University of Waterloo, is pleased to invite you to the 4^th International Agricultural Risk, Finance, and Insurance Conference (IARFIC), June 7-9, 2015, in Washington, DC. IARFIC is a non-profit international conference that brings together academia, government, private sector, producer groups, NGOs, and other stakeholders, to discuss critical Issues, global perspectives, best practices, and innovations within the field. The past three conferences were a tremendous success, held in 2012-Beijing, China, 2013-Vancouver, Canada, and 2014-Zurich, Switzerland, with select best papers published in special issues of Agricultural Finance Review by Emerald Group Publishing. 

VENUE: Please join us for a unique reception at the House Committee on Agriculture, Longworth House Office Building. All other conference activities will be hosted at the Park Hyatt Washington, 1201 24^th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037 (parkwashington.hyatt.com) , including the keynote addresses, plenary sessions, research presentations, and gala dinner. 

CO-ORGANIERS: IARFIC is co-hosted by the China Institute for Actuarial Science, China, the Central University of Finance and Economics, China, the Warren Centre for Actuarial Studies at the University of Manitoba, Canada, and the Agricultural and Applied Economics Associations, USA. 

KEYNOTE ADDRESSES

Joe Glauber, PhD, Senior Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and former Chief Economist, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), USA.

Brandon Willis, Administrator, Risk Management Agency (RMA) in the USDA's Farm and Foreign Agriculture Services, USA.

Mary Frances Miller, FCAS, MAAA, FCA, Hon FIA, CPCU, Are, AIM, Founder and Senior Consulting Actuary, Select Actuarial Services, USA.

Bruce Sherrick, Professor and Director, TIAA-CREF Centre for Farmland Research, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.

Joshua Woodard, Assistant Professor and Zaitz Family Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow in Agricultural Finance and Business, Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University, USA.

PLENARY SESSION TOPICS

1. Big Data: technical and policy challenges. Moderated by: Barry Barnett, Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, Mississippi State University, USA.
2. Improving agricultural insurance ratemaking: underlying assumptions regarding market volatility, price/yield relationships, etc. Moderated by: Calum Turvey, WI Myers Professor of Agricultural Finance, Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University, USA.
3. China: update and innovations.  Moderated by: Qiao Zhang, Professor, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China.
4. Agricultural insurance and the way forward: long-term sustainablility of agricultural insurance programs, including a discussion on program design, role of government, and subsidy.  Moderated by: G. Cornelis van Kooten, Professor of Economics and Canada Research Chair in Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, Canada.

PROGRAMME

Sunday, June 7, 2015: Registration (4-6PM), and Reception (7-9PM)
Monday, June 8, 2015: Conference (7AM-9 PM), and Gala Dinner (6:30-10 PM)
Tuesday, June 9, 2015: Conference (7AM-5 PM)

REGISTRATION (www.iarfic.org)

Regular registration fee: $895 USD*

Academic and student registration fee: $395 USD*

*Note: Add $100 USD to registration fee after April 1, 2015. Registration fee will be charged in CAD using an approximate exchange rate of 1.20.