New Crop Insurance Options for 2021

The New Year brings with it many new opportunities and changes for most businesses. While we are all hopeful for a better year, there are also things we can do to ensure 2021 is successful.

Protecting your operation with crop insurance is one way to mitigate risk this year by providing a safety net to your bottom line. Check out these great new Crop Insurance Policy options for 2021:

Enhanced Coverage Option (ECO)

This option is similar to the Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO), but can provide an additional band of coverage up to 95% for a portion of your underlying crop insurance policy deductible. It must be purchased as an endorsement to the Yield Protection, Revenue Protection, Revenue Protection with the Harvest Price Exclusion, Actual Production History, or Yield Based Dollar Amount of Insurance policy.

Quality Loss Option (QL)

This option allows substitution of a post-quality adjusted (QA) yield for a pre-QA yield in an Actual Production History (APH) database in circumstances where quality loss occurs. The QL will be offered at an actuarially sound premium rate. The Risk Management Agency implemented the QL in response to the 2018 Farm Bill to carry out research and development that establishes an alternative method for adjusting quality losses that will not impact your APH.

UPDATED – Hurricane Insurance Protection Wind Index (HIP-WI)

This option provides additional coverage in the event of hurricane-force winds in your covered county or an adjacent county. The objective of this endorsement is to alleviate ad-hoc disaster assistance and speed up the payment time frame in hurricane wind disaster situations.

The endorsement is an addition to your MPCI or CAT policy and will cover the deductible portion up to 95% in coastal area counties designated in the actuarials. The endorsement covers wind damage only, not flooding or excess precipitation. You can choose the percentage of payment you would want to receive in a loss anywhere from 1% to 100%. If your county is deemed to have had a loss from a named hurricane (does not include tropical storm damage), claim payment will be automatic. With this product being new and different from traditional MPCI crop insurance, contact your agent soon to discuss how HIP-WI can fit into your operation’s risk management plan. If you added this endorsement for 2020, it will remain on your policy unless you request that it be removed.

For more information regarding any of these options, please contact your crop insurance agent prior to the March 15th sales deadline. Visit farmcreditcropinsurance.com to learn more about our crop insurance services at Farm Credit.

We are proud to partner with Rain and Hail LLC, QBE NAU, and Rural Community Insurance Services (RCIS).