Farmers and ranchers now have until Dec. 1 to make coverage decisions and complete reporting activities for the Pasture, Rangeland, and Forage Pilot Insurance Program (PRF) and Apiculture Pilot Insurance Program (API). The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Risk Management Agency (RMA) is making this change and other updates to these two policies based on feedback from stakeholders.

“We want to offer flexibility to our nation’s producers, which is why we are always listening to our customers and looking at ways to improve the process and products we provide to them,” RMA Acting Administrator Richard Flournoy said. “The date changes will provide additional time to help producers who are busy preparing their operations for the winter.”

PRF and API are both Rainfall Index crop insurance policies designed to aid farmers and ranchers in case of a lack of precipitation that affects available forage for livestock and honeybees. The plans consider a decline in rainfall by comparing it with the historical average precipitation for the same area during the same period of time.

PRF is designed to help protect a rancher’s livestock operation from the risks of forage loss.  In 2020, ranchers insured almost 160 million acres and nearly 32,000 policies to protect $2.9 billion in liabilities.

API provides a safety net for beekeepers’ primary income sources of honey, pollen collection, wax and breeding stock. In 2020, farmers covered about 1.8 million colonies under 3,300 policies to protect $250 million in liabilities.

RMA is revising the dates for the sales closing, acreage/colony reporting, cancellation and termination of the PRF and API insurance programs from Nov. 15 to Dec. 1. For PRF, RMA is also increasing reporting flexibility by allowing the USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) acreage report (form FSA-578) to be used in conjunction with other documents to verify insurable interest.

Other changes to the plans include:

  • revising the definition of “veteran farmer or rancher” to allow a legal entity, comprised only of the veteran and their spouse, to qualify as a veteran farmer or rancher when a qualifying veteran has a non-veteran spouse; and
  • allowing a producer to report acreage as certified organic, or as acreage in transition to organic, when the producer has requested an organic certification by the acreage reporting date.

Other Livestock Insurance Options
Livestock Risk Protection (LRP), which is available for feeder cattle, fed cattle and swine producers. It provides protection against declining market prices. Recent changes to LRP have resulted in substantial increases in program participation and livestock producers are encouraged to explore these risk management tools. More information on LRP and other livestock programs can be found on RMA’s livestock webpage.

More Information
RMA staff are working with AIPs and other customers by phone, mail and electronically to support crop insurance coverage for farmers and ranchers.

Farmers with crop insurance questions or needs should contact their insurance agents about conducting business remotely (by telephone or email). More information can be found at farmers.gov/coronavirus.

Crop insurance is sold and delivered solely through private crop insurance agents. A list of crop insurance agents is available at all USDA Service Centers and online at the RMA Agent Locator. Learn more about crop insurance and the modern farm safety net at rma.usda.gov.