Congress first authorized Federal crop insurance in the 1930s along with other initiatives to help agriculture recover from the combined effects of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. The Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) was created in 1938 to carry out the program. Initially, the program was started as an experiment, and crop insurance activities were mostly limited to major crops in
the main producing areas. Crop insurance remained an experiment until passage of the Federal Crop Insurance Act of 1980. http://www.rma.usda.gov/aboutrma/what/history.html
In 1978 the Regional FCIC office in Paris, Ky. contracted with Eddie as an independent agent in a pilot program representing FCIC. This allowed crop insurance to be sold and serviced outside of the Federal system. With the Crop Insurance Act of 1980 FCIC established independent master marketing agencies to sell and service crop insurance. We then moved from the federal relationship to being an agent for NACIA which was later reorganized into NAU. Norwest Bank purchased NAU (but not the name) and renamed it Rural Community Insurance Services (RCIS). We have been fortunate with our service provider selection, as RCIS has remained in business and the largest crop insurance company. We started by insuring only to***co in the early days, which was all that was available. In addition to corn, soybeans and to***co we insure wheat, popcorn, Livestock Revenue protection & Livestock Gross Margins – Dairy. We have expanded from initially only doing business in Central Kentucky to now having insurance in most of Kentucky and all adjoining states. In 2001 son Brennan Gilkison started helping with the agency and Daughter-in-Law Serena started in 2003. Julia Tebbs Newman started in 2009 and her sister Susan Tebbs in 2010. John Tebbs retired from RCIS after 25 years and joined the agency in 2010. John and Eddie have been friends, neighbors and farming partners starting the late 70’s. We also work with sub-agents that are involved with agriculture to enable them to deliver professional insurance service to their customers. We approach Crop Insurance as a risk management tool. We recommend crop insurance as a part of your marketing program. Revenue Protection should be considered a cost just as is fertilizer and seed. We work the same hours as our customers, 24-7 if needed.
