The White House announced changes in the federally subsidized crop-insurance program to cushion farmers against the ongoing drought in the West or other natural disasters. The changes broaden the number of crops and the area covered by the Actual Production History yield exemption and are estimated to generate $30 million in additional relief to farmers in the fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1, and $43 million in the following fiscal year.
“We’re opening it up to some additional crops,” said Agriculture Undersecretary Robert Bonnie during a teleconference. The yield exclusion allows farmers to omit poor yields from data used to calculate average yields. The result is better crop insurance coverage. Bonnie said it would prevent a bad year from driving up the cost of insurance or making insurance unaffordable at an adequate level of coverage.
The Risk Management Agency said the APH exclusion is available when a county’s average yield per planted acre is less than 50 percent of the 10-year average. The APH yield exclusion is available on barley, canola, corn, cotton, grain sorghum, peanuts, popcorn, rice, soybeans, sunflowers and spring wheat this crop year, and will be available in the 2016 crop year for winter wheat, alfalfa seed, cultivated wild rice, dry peas, forage production, oats, onions and rye in designated counties.
The authority also said the Supplemental Coverage Option, created by the 2014 farm law, would be available in 2016 for alfalfa seed, canola, cultivated wild rice, dry peas, forage production, grass seed, mint, oats, onions, potatoes and rye in select counties. SCO is offered this year for barley, corn, soybeans, cotton, cottonseed, rice, sorghum and wheat. SCO is an insurance-like program that covers some of the production above the level covered by crop insurance.