The Department of Agriculture has ended a ten percent higher crop insurance coverage option for prevented planting claims.
In a memo sent out to insurers and USDA’s Risk Management Agency field offices, USDA eliminated the Prevented Planting +10 Percent Option for the 2018 crop year and future crop years. USDA kept the five percent option for farmers, though analysis shows very few farmers have taken the five percent option, according to DTN.
Some suspect that Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue wants to expand insurance policies for livestock and dairy producers, so the move may be a way to fund that initiative. The move comes after USDA changed prevented planting coverage factors for some crops last spring, which included lowering the coverage factor for corn from 60 percent to 55 percent.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.