A decision on whether to reinstate an option for crop farmers to buy additional insurance coverage for prevent planting is coming “very soon,” according to USDA Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation Richard Fordyce.

Out of more than 350 comments on the change received by the Agriculture Department, “overwhelmingly” the majority asked for the additional buy-up coverage to be reinstated, Fordyce said at a House Agriculture Committee on Wednesday.

“I don't have an answer as to which direction we're going to go, but I am positive personally that we'll have a positive resolution to that,” Fordyce said.

A decision needs to come soon so USDA can inform insurance providers, he added.

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The buy-up option refers to increased coverage above the basic level when natural disasters, like flooding, or bad weather prevents farmers from planting crops by a set date. USDA’s Federal Crop Insurance Corporation did away with the buy-up option late last year as part of a rule aimed at “modernizing the system.”

USDA said the option was no longer needed because Congress “has a history of addressing widespread flooding through ad hoc disaster assistance.” The move prompted a bipartisan pushback from agriculture leaders in Congress.

“Eliminating the option for producers to purchase additional buy-up coverage for prevented planting is troubling, especially at a time when our farmers need access to all risk management tools available to them,” nearly all members of the Senate Agriculture Committee wrote in a January letter to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. “We respectfully ask that USDA reverse this decision.”

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