USDA Controlled Environment Crop Insurance Program Underway for 2024
February 24, 2024 The 2024 crop year marks the inaugural year of the USDA’s new crop insurance program announced in October 2023. Designed specifically for agricultural producers who use controlled growing environments in their operations, the new USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA) program reflects increasing support for urban agriculture and controlled environment agriculture growers.
Targeting crops grown in fully enclosed controlled environments, the RMA’s Controlled Environment program offers insurance coverage for plants under federal or state destruction orders due to plant disease or contamination that occurs despite proper protocols in place.
RMA Administrator Marcia Bunger noted the agency is always looking to improve and expand crop insurance resources offered to agricultural producers: “Controlled environment agriculture is a quickly growing sector in the nation’s food production, and this new option is part of USDA’s broader effort to support urban agriculture and new and better markets for American producers.”
The Controlled Environment program offers an inventory-based coverage plan that bases the insured’s guarantee on inventory values reported by the producer. The program augments other federal insurance products available to nursery and innovative agricultural producers by offering additional benefits not available under those programs, including:
- Coverage for all Controlled Environment plants, including cuttings, seedlings, and tissue culture.
- New crop insurance coverage specific to the disease risk to plants in Controlled Environment operations.
- Insurance for producer-selected Controlled Environment plant categories that are not in other nursery insurance programs.
- The ability to purchase single peril Controlled Environment insurance as a standalone policy or in conjunction with other nursery insurance.
- Crop insurance coverage through a streamlined application and policy renewal process.
Beginning with the 2024 crop year, the Controlled Environment program is available in select counties in the following 25 U.S. states: Alabama, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
The first sales closing date for the program was Dec. 1, 2023. However, provisions exist for new and first-year insureds applying for coverage after their county’s sales closing date.
Controlled environment 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. You can learn more about crop insurance and the USDA’s safety net for agricultural producers at rma.usda.gov or by contacting your RMA Regional Office.