Supplemental Coverage Option Expanding as Part of the Farm Safety Net

The 2014 Farm Bill created Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO), a new add-on crop insurance option which provides supplemental coverage on a producer’s underlying crop insurance policy. SCO operates by mimicking a producer’s individual crop insurance coverage and covering a portion of the deductible based on county-level yield or revenue. SCO is available in select Maryland counties for apples, barley, corn, grain sorghum, green peas, oats, peaches, processing beans, soybeans, sweet corn, and winter wheat, as of the 2017 crop year. USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) continues to expand covered counties and crops covered, and begin distinguishing by practices (such as irrigated compared to non-irrigated).

Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Maryland Extension, Maryland Department of Agriculture, and USDA