USDA recently announced the Pandemic Cover Program for 2022, a program which aims to provide agricultural producers who have planted a cover crop this year with a premium benefit on top of their crop insurance.
Producers who have insured their crop and chose to plant a qualifying cover crop in the 2022 crop year can capture the premium support of $5 per acres but no more than the fill premium owed.
Most insurance policies are included in the program. However, there are a few exceptions.
Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) and STAX (Stacked Income Protection for Cotton) are the two programs that are used in our area.
If you file your report of acreage with FSA by March 15, 2022, certifying your acres and type of cover crops, you will automatically receive the reduced premium benefits.
Producers will be asked to provide cover crop information regarding varieties, acreage numbers, maps and boundaries, planting dates, planting pattern, producer shares and irrigation practices.
In 2021, the first year the program was made available, producers enrolled 12.2 million acres of cover crops in the program capturing a collective $59.5 million in premium subsidies.
Producers must enroll by March 15, 2022.
Normal acreage reporting dates for the cover crops with FSA will not change.
Fall seeded cover crops that grow during the winter are the most common used in our area.
The acreage reporting dates for fall seeded cover crops with FSA has passed, but a producer can late file an acreage report if evidence of the cover crop is still present in the fields
The late-filed fee of $46 per farm is required to be paid at time of the late acreage report.
