USDA expands insurance options for specialty crops

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The USDA is expanding its insurance coverage options for farmers and ranchers who grow certain types of specialty crops.

Beginning in 2024, the agency will make enterprise units available for alfalfa seed, wild rice, forage grasses, mint, onions and potatoes.

Enterprise units allow producers to insure all acres of a crop grown in the same county together - as opposed to optional units, which separate acreage into individual sections.

With optional units, a farmer can sustain losses in one section but not another, and still receive an insurance payment.

That is not the case with enterprise units, which factor in the combined production on all sections.

Because farmers take on more risk with enterprise units, policy premiums are less expensive compared to optional units.

Enterprise units were traditionally only available for corn, soybeans, wheat and cotton, said Marcia Bunger, risk management administrator for the USDA. Now, more specialty crops are being accepted into the fold.

"We want to make sure we are giving the nation's agricultural producers the strongest risk management tools possible - and one of those is flexibility," Bunger said.

Bunger encouraged producers to talk with their local crop insurance agents to determine which policies work best for their farms. What makes sense financially and logistically for one operation might not work for another, she said.

"This expansion of enterprise units gives producers more choices for how they can protect their operations and themselves best," Bunger said. "That's our ultimate goal."

Bunger said the USDA is considering expanding enterprise units to even more specialty crops "in the coming months."

"I think it's important that all growers have the same bells and whistles that historically corn, soybean, wheat and cotton producers have had," she said. "I think it's important that we provide equity to commodities when it comes to crop insurance."

For more information about federal crop insurance, visit www.rma.usda.gov.