News

Assistance for prevent planting

Scott Wagar

09/10/2013

Senator John Hoeven and Senator Heidi Heitkamp have assisted farmers throughout North Dakota by meeting with the Risk Management Agency (RMA) Administrator Brandon Willis to make clear new rules with prevent planting crop insurance changes, which caused uncertainty for crop producers.

Hoeven and Heitkamp have been working with Willis to clear up three items concerning prevented planting and insurance companies’ wordage within their policy statements on the issue.

The clarifications were wanted in North Dakota after crop producers this year in the state grew concerned over large amounts of rainfall, cold weather and snowfall which deferred planting. When they looked at the prevent planting policy confusion grew over the written rule on normal weather and the RMA declaring the 2012 planting season abnormally dry for North Dakota farmers.

RMA’s written policy on normal weather, which states in what is called the 1-in-4 rule that in prevent planting farmers are covered if they are not able to plant a crop due to poor weather conditions.

However, the rule states that crop producers must plant and harvest a crop on the field at least once in the past four years.

Through the normal weather clause, abnormally dry wasn’t covered in the 1-by-4 rule, leaving North Dakota crop producers without coverage.

With how the policy was written, North Dakota crop producers, insurance owners, the state leaders made a request that RMA make changes to the policy.     

Through the two North Dakota senators meeting with Willis, changes were made, which cleared up the issues, confusing crop producers and making it easier to understand.

On August 26, RMA released the new provisions to the prevent planting program starting in 2014. According to Heitkamp’s office, the new rules included:

  •  Eliminates the normal weather provision to allow a producer who plants and harvests a crop one out of four years, regardless of the weather situation, to be eligible for prevented plant. The previous rules definition of normal weather conditions was a matter of subjective interpretation, leaving growers uncertain about how they could use those years to qualify for prevented plant insurance.
  •  Removes a provision disqualifying land for prevent planting if marsh vegetation, such as a single cattail, is found on it.
  •  Clarifies that if a producer is unable to plant and harvest on certain acreage in one of the four most recent crop years, the producer will need to demonstrate the land is farmable by planting and harvesting (or incurring an insurable loss other than for excess moisture) two years in a row.

With the clarifications, the RMA has stated that prevent planting claims will now be considered case-by-case by insurance companies.  

Heitkamp played a huge role in the normal weather clause for North Dakotans this spring when she asked the RMA for this rule change and brought Michael Scuse, acting deputy secretary with the United States Department of Agriculture, to Bismarck to speak with producers from the state.

“Farmers deserve to know they can rely on the insurance coverage they purchased. The policies must be clear with regard to eligibility and coverage,” said U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

“As soon as I heard concerns from North Dakota farmers about uncertainties regarding prevent plant eligibility, I strongly advocated for a policy change to make sure all growers receive the coverage they paid for. Removing the normal weather clause is a positive step for the next season, and I am pleased that USDA heeded our concerns.”

The RMA administers the federal crop insurance program by subsidizing federal money to private insurance companies who offer prevent planting policy.