How did the 2018 Farm Bill affect crop insurance?

The Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018, commonly referred to as the 2018 Farm Bill, strengthened crop insurance by adding new products, directing research to the development of products for additional crops, modifying existing programs to address non-traditional agricultural commodities and/or production and marketing systems with new strategies related to catastrophic crop losses. These actions will increase crop insurance’s role as a key component of the farm safety net. In addition, the bill makes a number of changes to the details of individual parts of the crop insurance system with a view to improving the delivery and management system while working more closely with other allied USDA agencies.

Among the new programs is the addition of hemp to the list of commodities that can be eligible for insurance. Direction for research includes the development of polices to insure the production of, or revenue derived from, hops, the production of products targeted to local consumers and markets, new and innovative irrigation practices for rice and improvements in existing citrus fruit policies.

In addition, there is an emphasis on the development of continued growth in the Whole Farm Revenue Protection Policy (WFRP). Specifically, RMA is directed to take steps necessary to streamline, add flexibility or tailor program rules to make the WFRP provide meaningful and more efficient risk protection for non-traditional agricultural commodities  like aquaculture enhancements, removing caps on nursery and livestock, moderating impacts of disaster years on historic revenue, and several other improvements. And new research and development authority was provided to address production and marketing systems for urban, local food, or greenhouses that are not served as well under current yield or revenue-based policies for individual crops.

FCIC was also directed to carry out research on the development of polices that would address low frequency, catastrophic losses due to weather events such as tropical storms or hurricanes. Such policies would address production and/or revenue losses designed to address situations such as the storm damage to crops in 2018 and 2018 where high levels of participation at low levels of coverage resulted in passage of targeted additional ad hoc disaster assistance.

*Updated April 2021