Crop Insurance For Maryland Field Crops And Livestock

Multi-peril crop insurance is a valuable risk management tool which allows you to insure against losses on your farm due to adverse weather conditions, price fluctuations, and unavoidable pests and diseases. It shifts unavoidable production risks to an insurance company for the payment of a fixed amount of premium per acre. This publication assists readers in understanding the basics of the federal crop insurance program.

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).