USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) announced a Special
Provision statement to clarify acreage eligible for prevented plant crop
insurance coverage in the Prairie Pothole National Priority Area. The RMA news release is available here.
The new provision will require acreage to be planted
and harvested (or have incurred an insurable loss for something other than
excess moisture) in at least one out of the last four years, regardless of
whether any of those years was abnormally dry.
According to an AG Week article, available here,
RMA also announced that if a crop is ineligible because of the one-in-four
rule, it must be planted and harvested for two years in a row for a future crop
to get back in the program. The agency
will also remove “a provision that disqualified land for prevented plant
insurance if marsh vegetation, such as a single cattail, was found on it.”
The changes refer to regions of Iowa, Minnesota,
Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota for the 2014 and succeeding crop years.
RMA Administrator Brandon Willis said that the new
provision “creates a more objective means for determining acreage eligible for
prevented planting than the current rule.”
According to Willis, a report from USDA’s Office of Inspector General
will be released in the next several weeks and is expected to eliminate ambiguities. Dan Wogsland, executive director of the North
Dakota Grain Growers Association, said that his organization is “extremely
pleased that the RMA backed off of the abnormally dry provision and is going
with the one-in-four rule.”
Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND), Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND),
and Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), announced the new guidelines in a press release
from Rep. Cramer’s office available here. According to the press release, the changes
were a result of the delegation’s work with the RMA. Sen. Hoven met with RMA administrator Brandon
Willis in May to discuss the prevented plant rules. Sen. Heitkamp previously requested
“clarification from RMA regarding an across-the-board application of the
‘normal weather clause’ in North Dakota.”
In July, Heitkamp hosted Michael Scuse of USDA in Bismarck “to hear
directly from North Dakota farmers” and express her concerns with ambiguity in
the prevented plant policies.
Interested in learning more about federal crop insurance? The 34th Annual Conference of the American Agricultural Law Association will focus on a number of federal crop insurance issues, including a panel session on crop insurance. For information on the conference, click here. The crop insurance panel will be moderated by Robert Serio, Serio Law Office, and panel speakers include:
- David P. Grahn, Associate General Counsel, USDA;
- Grant Ballard, Attorney, Banks Law Firm, PLLC;
- Harrison Pittman, Director, National Agricultural Law Center;
- Greg James, Attorney at Law, Clarendon, AR;
- Michael Stevens, Oxford, MS; and
- Kurt Henke, Oxford, MS.
