Recent updates to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Whole-Farm Revenue Protection (WFRP) plan will provide new benefits to organic producers. USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) has modified the WFRP to provide more flexibility for producers and be more accessible beginning with the next crop year.
“These improvements to the Whole-Farm Revenue Protection program will make it a better risk management tool for producers,” RMA Acting Administrator Richard Flournoy said in a press release. “USDA is committed to equity in program delivery, and this includes specialty crop, organic, and aquaculture producers, who will benefit from these enhancements to WFRP.”
Some of the changes to the protection plan include the increase of expansion limits for organic producers to the higher of $500,000, or 35 percent. Small and medium-sized organic operations had previously been held to the same 35 percent limit to expansion as conventional producers. Certified organic producers and those transitioning to organic, can report their acreage as certified organic when organic certification has been requested by the acreage reporting date. Other updates include allowing producers to report a partial yield history when there is a lack of records. Missing a year of records has traditionally caused the commodity’s expected value to be zero.
The revenue protection provided through the plan is designed for any farm with up to $8.5 million in insured revenue. That includes farming operations with specialty or organic commodities, covering both crops and livestock. The insurance plan is also tailored to farms that market to local, regional, farm-identity preserved, specialty, or direct markets. More than 2,000 policies were purchased in 2020, protecting $2.26 billion in liabilities.
Available nationwide, the WFRP serves as a risk management tool for all commodities on the farm under one insurance policy. RMA will continue working with crop insurance companies and other customers to help further support crop insurance coverage for producers. A list of crop insurance agents is available at all USDA Service Centers and online.
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