USDA Improves Crop Insurance Policies for Coarse Grains Producers

WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Risk Management Agency has issued the following news release:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced changes to crop insurance for coarse grains in 2020. USDA's Risk Management Agency (RMA) made changes to the policy, which take effect in 2020. The changes allow producers more flexibility to choose enterprise units (EU) or optional units (OU) by Following Another Crop (FAC) or Not Following Another Crop (NFAC) cropping practice in select grain sorghum and soybean counties.

"We continually listen to producers and other stakeholders in developing our crop insurance policies, and we make adjustments to these policies when necessary," said RMA Administrator Martin Barbre. "With these changes, we believe grain sorghum and soybean producers will have more flexibility."

These changes are important because they:

* Allow producers to better manage the unique risks of each practice by having separate FAC and NFAC units.

* Producers may now be indemnified independently by FAC and NFAC units. A gain on one of the cropping practices will not be offset by the loss on the other cropping practice.

Changes are further described in a final rule, now available on the Federal Register at regulations.gov. Interested parties are invited to comment on the rule for 60 days.

Over 75 million acres of grain sorghum and soybeans worth a total of over $25 billion (liabilities) are covered by crop insurance in 48 states.

Crop insurance is sold and delivered solely through private crop insurance agents. A list of crop insurance agents is available at all USDA Service Centers and online at the RMA Agent Locator (https://www.rma.usda.gov/en/Information-Tools/Agent-Locator-Page). Learn more about crop insurance and the modern farm safety net at rma.usda.gov.