2014 Farm Bill Update: USDA’s Crop Loss Protection Tools

The farm bill provides improved crop insurance and the Non-insurable crop disaster AssistanceProgram (NAP) with new Buy-Up coverage as the primary risk management tools for crop farmers. Together they can provide protection of input costs and much of the expected income for almost every crop grown in Connecticut. The Bill was designed on the premise that farmers should and will assume the responsibility of using the appropriate amounts of protection for each crop from these two programs so that they will be able to sufficiently manage their risk exposures so that they will not experience a business financial interruption when disasters occur.

Crop Insurance Protection is available for up to 75% of your yield or revenue history (85% for some crops) for many crops and some livestock. Whole Farm Revenue Protection is also available. New Farm Bill improvements include added benefits for new/beginning, organic and other crop producers. Farm level details are available from crop insurance agents (a list is available at: or from your FSA office.

The improved Non-insurable crop disaster Assistance Program (NAP) provides protection for most crops, similar to crop insurance at up to 65% of your yield history (when a crop insurance policy is not available) from the Farm Service Agency (FSA ) office for the county.

Therealsoare supplementalriskmanagementprograms for general field crops that have FSA established base acres.County and Individual Area Risk Coverage (ARC) are available that can provide up to 65 or 85 percent of revenue losses between 76 and 86 percent of historicalrevenue but the maximum payment is 6.5% or 8.5% respectively of expected revenue. This protection is available at no cost to you.

Or

Price Loss Coverage (PLC) is available that provides protection when market prices are less than reference prices for crops that FSA established base acres on your farm(s).

Information for these programs is available from your county Farm Service Agency (FSA/USDA) office.

Each producer is personally responsible to develop a risk management plan for their farm(s) before the enrollment deadlines. The USDA provides tools for you to consider for developing your plan. ENROLLMENT DEADLINES are 9/30 for fall seeded grains and 11/20 for perennial fruit crops.

Please note: This material provides only a brief overview of USDA’s crop loss protection tools. The 2014 Farm Bill contains many new provisions. For specific policy information, signup deadlines and other information for your farm, please visit your countyFSA USDA office and a licensed crop insurance agent. General crop insurance and other program information can be found at the RMA USDA website at and the FSA USDA website at . Also visit the Connecticut Farm Risk Management and Crop Insurance Program website at . This website provides information on upcoming crop insurance and risk management programs, publications, crop insurance signup deadlines and crop insurance fact sheets.

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