USDA: Changes Coming to Improve Prevented Planting Coverage

By Cotton Grower Staff|August 24, 2020

USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) is making several improvements to Federal crop insurance prevented planting coverage.

The changes in prevented planted coverage for most spring crops will begin in the 2021 crop year and will expand to cover all crops in the 2022 crop year.

“After unprecedented prevented planting in 2019, it was important to examine how prevented planting policy can be improved,” said RMA Administrator Martin Barbre. “Over the past few months, RMA has engaged producer groups, insurance agents, and Approved Insurance Providers (AIP) in discussion through a prevented planting taskforce with the goal to improve prevented planting for producers when they really need it, but not to incentivize it.”

The changes include:

Expansion of the “1 in 4” requirement nationwide. Currently available only to producers in the Prairie Pothole National Priority Area, the program requires producers to plant acreage in at least one of the four most recent crop years to be eligible for prevented planting coverage on those acres.
Several modifications to existing policy and procedure to ensure that producers’ prevented planting payments adequately reflect the crops the producer intended to plant. Specific information on the changes can be found here.
Allow acreage planted with an uninsured second crop following the failure of a first crop within the same crop year to also be included as prevented planting eligible acreage.
Provide an exception allowing prevented planting of a different crop than the producer attempted to plant when he/she does not have a history of producing two crops in the same field. The producer must prove intention.
Allow the use of an intended acreage report for the first two years, instead of only the first year, for producers in a new county where they have never produced the crop.

RMA is authorizing additional flexibilities due to coronavirus while continuing to work through AIPs to deliver services to producers, including processing policies, claims and agreements. Farmers with crop insurance questions or needs should continue to contact their insurance agents about conducting business remotely (by telephone or email), with additional information available online.