The USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA) recently announced a series of changes that will provide specialty crop producers greater flexibility to use their own records to meet crop insurance requirements and improve transparency in the producer’s policy. These changes will help optimize processes and requirements for specialty crop producers and others who sell through direct marketing channels to obtain insurance, report their annual production and file a claim.

Updates include:

>> A new marketing certification that allows producers to self-identify if they will not have disinterested third-party records, when required, and enables them to use their own supporting production records. This will benefit direct marketers and vertically integrated producers since they often do not have disinterested third-party records.

>> Allows producers to use their own records, thereby limiting the need for Approved Insurance Providers (AIP) preharvest appraisals as a supporting record

USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA) administrator Marcia Bunger commented:

“Crop insurance plays a critical role in a farmer’s operation and how they manage their risk, and we’re here to help. Optimizing reporting requirements for direct marketers or vertically integrated operations will help make insurance easier and more accessible for countless producers, including those who grow specialty crops and are an important part of our local and regional food systems.”

These revisions and other updates come through the Crop Insurance Reporting and Other Changes Final Rule published by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation. Read more about the recent updates.