USDA Risk Management Agency announces greater flexibility in crop insurance reporting

Specialty crop producers now have greater flexibility to use their own records to meet crop insurance reporting requirements. The USDA is also announcing revisions to make it easier for producers and others selling through direct marketing channels to obtain insurance, report their annual production, and file a claim. 

​​“Farming and ranching are inherently complex and often challenging occupations, so anything and everything we can do to streamline processes and requirements are essential,” says Marcia Bunger, administrator of the USDA’s RMA. “Crop insurance plays a critical role in a farmer's operation and how they manage their risk, and we’re here to help. Optimizing reporting requirements for direct marketers or vertically integrated operations will help make insurance easier and more accessible for countless producers, including those who grow specialty crops and are an important part of our local and regional food systems.” 

Changes to crop insurance reporting

One of these changes is a new marketing certification allowing producers to self-identify if they will not have disinterested third-party records, when required, and enables them to use their own supporting production records instead. This will benefit direct marketers and vertically integrated producers, since they often do not have disinterested third-party records. 

The changes will also allow producers to use their own records, limiting the need for Approved Insurance Providers (AIP) pre-harvest appraisals as a supporting record. 

Before these changes, the Risk Management Agency generally required disinterested third-party records and AIPs may have conducted pre-harvest appraisals as a supporting production record. This will also improve transparency in the producer’s policy by adding production reporting definitions, listing the 30-day appeal deadline for good farming practice determinations, clarifying where a producer can find information in the policy, and updating terminology to be consistent across the policy.

These updates come from the Crop Insurance Reporting and Other Changes Final Rule published today by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation. This Final Rule will update the Common Crop Insurance Provisions Basic Provisions, Area Risk Protection Insurance Basic Provisions, and includes changes to individual Crop Provisions. 

Twenty Crop Provisions have been publicly released as of today. 

For more information about crop insurance and the modern farm safety net, visit rma.usda.gov.