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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Saturday, November 23, 2024
Margin protection insurance designed to protect farmers from increased input costs is being expanded to more than 1,000 additional counties in 2024 due to producer interest, USDA’s Risk Management Agency said Thursday.
Crop insurance is commonly recognized as the cornerstone of the farm safety net, but Risk Management Agency Administrator Marcia Bunger believes more training, outreach and education is needed.
Senators on both sides of the aisle used a farm bill hearing Thursday to call for addressing the rising input costs faced by row crop producers and expanding crop insurance options for fruits, vegetables and other specialty crops.
Livestock producers are signing up for programs that had long been overlooked by the industry, leading to a beef producer group jotting down another line item on an already lengthy lobbying agenda.
USDA is promoting new crop insurance choices this year, even as strong commodity prices and elevated production costs are making existing coverage even more vital to farmers, says Marcia Bunger, administrator of the Risk Management Agency.
Fruit and vegetable growers are debating potential options for expanding crop insurance coverage in the next farm bill, including reforms to the lightly used Whole Farm Revenue Protection policies.
Farmers and ranchers who bought crop insurance across the Plains and West are finding that it’s going to make a big difference to their bottom lines due to the drought that plagued the region through the growing season.
USDA officials are looking to educate crop insurance agents and farmers about the Whole Farm Revenue Protection and Micro Farm policies, products aimed at diversified operations and small-scale farms.
The Agriculture Department will allow double cropping to be insured in hundreds of additional counties this winter in an effort to address shortages of wheat and other commodities as a result of the war in Ukraine.
