Background

Section 522(c)(1) of the Federal Crop Insurance Act (Act) allows the Risk Management Agency (RMA) to conduct activities or enter into contracts to carry out research and development for underserved agricultural commodities, including specialty crops. Section 522(c)(2)(B) of the Act requires that RMA consult with groups representing producers of agricultural commodities that would be served by the policies that are the subject of research and development efforts.

As of December 01, 2015 the following information is now available on the FTP site:

• 2015 Actuarial Data Master for the 11/30 Filing Date, YTD, and Daily Files.

Users can find this information in the following directories:

• 2015 Actuarial Data Master are in the References/Actuarial_Data_Master/2015 directory.

Additional notes and details regarding this data release:

2015 ADM Price updated for the harvest price announcement, PM-15-058, 11/30 filing.

Background

On September 16, 2015, the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation Board of Directors (Board) approved implementation of a Hybrid Sweet Corn Seed (HSCS) Pilot Program beginning with crop year 2016. The HSCS Pilot Program is available in select counties in Colorado, Idaho, Oregon and Washington and is designed similar to other current hybrid seed crop insurance programs.

The sales closing date is March 15, 2016, for the 2016 crop year.

Common Crop Insurance Policy & Area Risk Protection Insurance ^1,2

The 2015 CY harvest prices shown below are approved for the following plans of insurance: Revenue Protection, Area Revenue Protection, Revenue Protection with Harvest Price Exclusion and Area Revenue Protection – Harvest Price Exclusion. The harvest prices are applicable for the crops, practices, sales closing dates and states indicated in the following table.

Background

The Commodity Exchange Price Provisions (CEPP) are used in conjunction with either the Common Crop Insurance Policy Basic Provisions or the Area Risk Protection Insurance Basic Provisions, and along with Crop Provisions for the following crops: barley, canola/rapeseed, corn, cotton, grain sorghum, rice, soybeans, sunflowers and wheat.

The CEPP specifies how and when the projected and harvest price components will be determined. The CEPP contains two sections:

As of November 27, 2015 the following information is now available on the FTP site:

• 2015 Actuarial Data Master for the 4/30, 8/31 Filing Date, YTD, and Daily Files.
• 2016 Actuarial Data Master for the 6/30, 8/31, 9/30, 10/31, 11/30 Filing Date, YTD, and Daily Files.
• 2016 Special Provisions for the 11/30 Filing Date.

Users can find this information in the following directories:

Background

Recently, South Carolina and the surrounding area have experienced significant weather events including historic rains leading to unprecedented flooding across the state and region impacting crops and delaying harvest.  Reports indicate soybean, peanut, and cotton crops specifically suffered severe losses as a result of these weather events.  The flooding and wet harvest conditions have resulted in questions regarding procedures pertaining to claims settlement for affected crops.

Background

In accordance with Section 8 of the Rainfall and Vegetation Index Plan Common Policy Basic Provisions, final grid indices and payment calculation factors have been determined and approved for the following:

Background

Organic Rice Prices

Background

The Federal Crop Insurance Corporation Board of Directors approved the Hybrid Seed Rice (HSR) insurance program, a privately developed product that was submitted and approved under section 508(h) of the Federal Crop Insurance Act in May 2015. The HSR program provides coverage for the production of seed stock, which provides seed to producers. HSR will be available in certain Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas counties and is designed similar to other hybrid seed crop insurance programs currently available.