Crop insurance kept farmers afloat during a tough year

It’s over.

That’s the good thing for many farmers and ranchers who were hit with too much rain or harsh weather conditions in 2019. Last year will go down in the record books as another big year for crop insurance, providing much-needed assistance to growers who either couldn’t plant a crop or who had a crop destroyed during the growing season.

It’s not the biggest year that crop insurance has helped fill the void — that was 2012 when indemnities topped $17.4 billion — but the numbers across the country are still substantial.

Farmers paid premiums of about $3.8 billion to insure almost 380 million acres in 2019. By year-end, crop insurance companies paid out almost $7.6 billion to cover losses, and the numbers are expected to grow as all claims are finalized.

Thirty-three counties had crop insurance indemnities of over $25 million last year. South Dakota was most severely impacted, with farmers and ranchers in 15 of the state’s 66 counties receiving crop insurance indemnities of over $25 million. Farmers and ranchers in the county with the largest losses, Hutchinson, received over $63 million in indemnities.

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But damages occurred far and wide. California’s San Joaquin County, home of some of the nation’s most high-value crops and the largest portion of the state’s cherry crop, had just over $39 million in indemnities. Across the state, cherry growers paid over $14.4 million in premiums and received over $62.7 million in indemnities.

“In the midst of all of the other chaos taking place during planting season this year — ad hoc assistance passage, another trade aid announcement, unprecedented weather — the one thing a farmer could take to the bank was that he had prevent plant coverage that would provide an indemnity in a timely manner — even if he couldn’t get a crop in the ground,” noted Tara Smith, federal affairs vice president of the Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau. “Crop insurance provided that peace of mind.”

Here’s a list of the counties receiving crop insurance indemnities of at least $25 million by the end of 2019, according to RMA.

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