The USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA) today announced that the new Whole-Farm Revenue Protection insurance policy is now available for the 2015 crop year. The policy allows producers to insure between 50-85% of their whole farm revenue and makes crop insurance more affordable for producers, including fruit and vegetable growers and organic farmers and ranchers.

Whole-Farm Revenue Protection allows these growers to insure a variety of crops at once instead of one commodity at a time. That gives them the option of embracing more crop diversity and helps support the production of a wider variety of foods.

“USDA is committed to making crop insurance available and affordable to as many producers as possible. Whole-Farm Revenue Protection is another example of how we’re working with, and listening to, producers to create a safety net that meets their specific needs,” said RMA Administrator Brandon Willis.

The 2014 Farm Bill allowed RMA to create the whole-farm crop insurance policy. However, RMA began working on this policy months before the 2014 Farm Bill was passed. Through input from key stakeholders, the Whole-Farm Revenue Protection insurance includes a wide range of available coverage levels, coverage for replanting, provisions that increase coverage for expanding operations, a higher maximum amount of coverage, and the inclusion of market readiness costs in the coverage. 

Whole-Farm Revenue Protection is tailored for any farm with up to $8.5 million in insured revenue, including farms with specialty or organic commodities (both crops and livestock), or those marketing to local, regional, farm-identity preserved, specialty, or direct markets.

The whole farm policy is available in most states. The new policy will also provide a whole-farm premium subsidy to farms with two or more commodities as long as minimum diversification requirements are met, which means purchasing crop insurance will be more affordable for producers. Whole-Farm Revenue Protection can be purchased in conjunction with individual crop policies as long as those policies are at a buy-up coverage level.