I've been working in insurance for the last 4 years. We cover a lot of farmers since we're absolutely surrounded by farm land. It's been a trend for decades now that farmers actually pray for their crops to fail. Why? Because the insurance companies pay out more to them to cover their failed or damaged crops than if they were to harvest the crops and sell them. Corn and soybeans are the #1 crops here. They pay bottom-of-the-barrel per bushel for both of those. They're almost worthless with how little the farmers get in return for them. But if the crops fail or are damaged by water, hail, or wind, they get about 10-20% more payout, which gets into the tens of thousands, if not more, depending on acreage.

If the farmers are being told and paid to fail their crops, they WILL do it. Running a farm is SO expensive, and most farmers are in debt because of buying or fixing machinery. They want to get out of debt no matter what, and they'll do anything to get out.