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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Friday, May 03, 2024
President Donald Trump’s election-year budget proposes $1 trillion in infrastructure spending, including $25 billion earmarked for rural America, while reprising recommendations for slashing farm programs and nutrition assistance.
Many hemp producers will be eligible for multi-peril crop insurance this year, and other growers could qualify for Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program that provides aid to growers who don't have access to conventional crop insurance.
Growers paid over $10 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.
A five-year, USDA-funded study says that producers can’t get the insurance coverage they need either because it’s unavailable for their particular crops or won’t cover their losses adequately because of the conservation practices they follow.
Prevented planting insurance claims could easily set a record this year despite lower limits on coverage imposed by the Agriculture Department because of concerns that growers were being overpaid in the past.
An insurance policy created to help diversified operations, specialty crop growers and small farms better manage their risk has slipped in popularity over the past two years, but advocates say a series of changes USDA is making in the program could reverse the decline.
Agriculture Department officials expect farmers to file more than $1 billion in insurance claims for acreage they were unable to plant due to the succession of storms across the Midwest and Mississippi River valley this spring.
Calls for flexibility with the haying and grazing of cover crops on prevented planting acres have USDA exploring its options and lawmakers trying to make it easier for them to do so.
The House on Monday finally cleared a $19.1 billion disaster aid package that will benefit farmers and communities who suffered from a series of natural disasters stretching back nine months.
