USDA has expanded crop insurance options for specialty and organic growers beginning with the 2025 crop year. USDA’s Risk Management Agency says it will expand coverage options by allowing enterprise units by organic farming practice, adding enterprise unit eligibility for several crops and making additional policy updates.
The Risk Management Agency says it also plans to announce new coverage for grape growers in the West and beyond.
“Expanding our coverage options gives producers more opportunities to manage their risks. We will continue to build on our work through future announcements later this summer,” said Marcia Bunger, agency administrator.
These options will begin with the 2025 crop year and include the following:
• Enterprise and Optional Units:
• Expand enterprise uits to almonds, apples, avocado (California), citrus (Arizona, California and Texas), figs, macadamia nuts, pears, prunes and walnuts.
• Allow noncontiguous parcels of land that qualify for optional units to also qualify for Enterprise Units.
• Allow enterprise units by organic farming practice for almonds, apples, avocado (California), cabbage, citrus (Arizona, California and Texas), dry peas, figs, fresh market tomatoes, macadamia nuts, pears, potatoes (northern, central and southern), processing tomatoes, prunes and walnuts.
• Expand optional units by organic practice to all remaining crops where optional units are available and the organic practice is insurable.
• Walnut Quality Adjustment — Allow sunburned damaged walnuts to be eligible for indemnity payments through quality adjustment.
• Almond Leaf Year — Expand insurance coverage to younger trees by including trees in their fifth leaf year after being set out.
These revisions come through the Expanding Options for Specialty and Organic Growers Final Rule published by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation. This final rule will update the Common Crop Insurance Policy Basic Provisions, Area Risk Protection Insurance Basic Provisions, and include changes to individual crop provisions. The enterprise unit availability will continue to be rolled out throughout the year with each crop’s contract change date, and the Risk Management Agency says it will continue to evaluate expanding enterprise units to additional crops.
Additional changes include:
• New Breaking Acreage:
• Reduce administrative burdens on growers and the delivery system by removing written agreement requirements on new breaking acreage.
• Reduce coverage penalties on perennial specialty crop producers and producers of intensively managed crops when they move to row crop production. This allows for a seamless transition without losing crop insurance coverage.
• Assignment of Indemnity — Provide flexibility for an indemnity payment to be issued via an automated clearing house or other electronic means when these methods do not allow for multiple payees.
• Good Farming Practices — Streamline and shorten the FCIC GFP reconsideration process by closing the administrative file following FCIC’s initial GFP determination.
• Double Cropping and Annual Forage — Clarify a producer must prove insurance history for the annual forage crop and meet the current double cropping requirements to receive a full prevented planting payment.
The Risk Management Agency says improvements to risk management tools include:
• Piloting the Fire Insurance Protection-Smoke Index crop insurance program for grapes in California for the 2025 crop year. The pilot program is an index-based endorsement to the actual production history grape policy that provides additional protection against smoke damage and covers the liability between the APH policy’s coverage level and 95%.
• Expanding the enhanced coverage option to walnuts and citrus crops and increasing premium support to be consistent with the supplemental coverage option.
• Expanding the Grapevine insurance program to an additional 29 counties in California. Grapevine insurance offers protection against vine losses in the event of several named perils.
• Releasing new Organic Practice Guidelines to producers for the 2025 crop year. These guidelines are to help producers report planted or perennial acreage insured under a certified organic or transitional practice.
