Farmers Face Greater Risk With Planting Insurance Option Removed

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images via the North Dakota Monitor)

(North Dakota Monitor) – North Dakota farmers will be without a key federal crop insurance option this year as they prepare for spring planting.

As part of federally subsidized crop insurance, farmers are insured when the weather prevents them from planting a crop. If the farmer can’t plant, they can collect on that part of the insurance policy, known as prevented planting.

In the past, farmers have been paying an additional premium to buy a higher level of prevented planting coverage. But that risk management option is not available to farmers this spring.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency announced last fall that it was eliminating the extra coverage option for prevented planting insurance.