The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced they are making updates to crop insurance in order to respond to the needs of agricultural producers, and this includes organic producers.
Specifically, USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) is making permanent a new provision that allows producers to hay, graze or chop cover crops and still receive a full prevented planting payment. To accommodate the different farming practices across the country, RMA is also increasing flexibility related to the prevented planting “1 in 4” requirement, as well as aligning crop insurance definitions with USDA’s National Organic Program.
Back in July, RMA announced producers can hay, graze or chop cover crops for silage, haylage or baleage at any time and still receive 100% of the prevented planting payment. RMA has now added this flexibility starting with the 2021 crop year as part of a broader effort to encourage producers to use cover crops.
For the 2020 crop year, RMA implemented a policy stating that for land to be eligible for prevented planting coverage, the acreage must meet the “1 in 4” requirement, which means the land must be planted, insured and harvested in at least one of the four most recent crop years. Now, RMA is adding flexibilities to recognize different farming practices and crops grown, as well as the availability of risk management options.
RMA is also revising four organic definitions to be consistent with USDA’s National Organic Program. Consistency across USDA programs is important to eliminate the potential for confusion between the various programs. This change builds on other RMA efforts to expand and improve current options for organic producers.
Learn more about crop insurance and the modern farm safety net at rma.usda.gov.