Farm Bill Implementation: USDA Announces New Provisions to Help Farmers Manage Risk
July 3, 2014 As part of the ongoing implementation of the 2014 Farm Bill, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced progress in implementing provisions that will improve crop insurance programs to provide better protection for farmers and ranchers from weather disaster, market volatility and other risk factors to ensure they aren’t wiped out by events beyond their control.
Vilsack also announced new support for beginning farmers that will make crop insurance more affordable and provide greater support when new farmers experience substantial losses. These announcements build on other recent USDA efforts to support beginning farmers.
“Crop insurance is critical to the ongoing success of today’s farmers and ranchers and our agriculture economy,” said Vilsack. “These improvements provide additional flexibility to ensure families do not lose everything due to events beyond their control.
“We’re also acting to provide more support to beginning farmers and ranchers so that they can manage their risk effectively,” he added. “We need to encourage new farmers to get into agriculture and ensure they’re not wiped out in their riskiest initial seasons so they can remain in agriculture for years to come.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Risk Management Agency (RMA) filed an interim rule with the Federal Register, allowing USDA to move forward with changes to crop insurance provisions. The provisions provide better options for beginning farmers, allow producers to have enterprise units for irrigated and non-irrigated crops, give farmers and ranchers the ability to purchase different levels of coverage for a variety of irrigation practices, provide guidance on conservation compliance, implement protections for native sod, and provide adjustments to historical yields following significant disasters.
The Farm Bill authorizes specific coverage benefits for beginning farmers and ranchers starting with the 2015 crop year. These newly-announced changes exempt new farmers from paying the $300 administrative fee for catastrophic policies. New farmers’ premium support rates will also increase ten percentage points during their first five years of farming.
Beginning farmers will also receive a greater yield adjustment when yields are below 60 percent of the applicable transitional yield. These incentives will be available for most insurance plans in the 2015 crop year and all plans by 2016.
Additional flexibility for irrigated and non-irrigated enterprise units and coverage levels will be available in the spring of 2015.
More information on implementation of these changes is available on the RMA website. The interim rule is also available online at the Federal Register. Written comments on the rule can also be submitted online by September 2, 2014.
Source – USDA
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