Farmers to receive 10-15% boost in direct payment from insurance agents.
Last year, only 2 million acres of prevented plantings were reported, while the number this year is over 14 million acres. To offer additional assistance, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that producers currently participating in federal crop insurance who had a payable prevented planting indemnity in 2019 related to flooding, excess moisture or causes other than drought will automatically receive a “top-up” payment.
Producers with Yield Protection and Revenue Protection with Harvest Price Option will receive a 10% top-up payment, while producers with Revenue Protection will receive 15%. These producers do not need to sign up to receive payments; all producers with a 2019 prevented planting indemnity will receive the top-up. Producers will receive the payment from their approved insurance provider (AIP) starting in mid-October.
“It was a challenging planting season for many of our farmers. We are doing everything we can to ensure producers receive the help they need,” said Bill Northey, USDA undersecretary for farm production and conservation. “USDA is working with AIPs so that producers can receive additional payments as soon as possible, and we appreciate the AIPs for helping us help America’s farmers.”
The crop insurance industry will deliver the payments as part of the Additional Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Act of 2019, which included a total of $3 billion in assistance related to natural disasters, including tornadoes and hurricanes in recent years. The prevented planting top-up payments are different from the Wildfires & Hurricanes Indemnity Program Plus payments. After the initial payment, additional payments will be made in the middle of each month as more prevented planting claims are processed.
“Crop insurance is an important program for many producers to help them manage their production and price risks,” said Martin Barbre, administrator of USDA’s Risk Management Agency. “We’re leveraging that system to efficiently and effectively deliver much-needed support to our farmers.”
In a recent USDA Newsline interview, Barbre added, “This has been such a tremendously tough year for producers. Commodity prices are low. Frankly, insurance guarantees aren’t as high as we’d like them to be based on those prices. Congress felt like this was something they needed to do for producers.”
House Agriculture Committee chairman Collin Peterson (D., Minn.) welcomed the additional assistance to farmers.
“As weather continues to throw wrenches into farmers’ plans, both in western Minnesota and across the country, I appreciate USDA and crop insurance providers moving forward in delivering the prevented planting plus-up that Congress provided,” Peterson said. “This will provide direct help to farmers without additional paperwork and allow them to focus on the range of other challenges they face.”
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