WASHINGTON Agricultural producers who have coverage under most crop insurance policies are eligible for a premium benefit from the U.S. Department of Agriculture if they planted cover crops during this crop year. The Pandemic…
A new program will give growers a $5-per-acre premium benefit on their crop insurance, but farmers must file their acreage report with the Farm Services Agency by June 15 to qualify.
By Nick Paulson, Gary Schnitkey, and Krista Swanson with the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois and Carl Zulauf, Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics at Ohio State University
The Enhanced Coverage Option (ECO) is a new supplemental insurance program that will be available in 2021. ECO is an option that can only be added to an underlying individual plan of insurance and provides area-based coverage similar to the Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO).
Overview of ECO
ECO will be available for purchase on 31 spring-planted crops including corn, soybeans, and wheat (RMA 2020a and 2020b). ECO is purchased as an endorsement to an eligible individual insurance plan such as Revenue Protection (RP), Revenue Protection with the Harvest Price Exclusion (RP-HPE), or Yield Protection (YP). It cannot be used with an underlying area plan of insurance (i.e. Area Risk Protection Insurance (APRI) or Margin Protection). ECO