In spite of the depth and far-reaching impact of the drought that has gripped more than half of the nation’s agricultural production area this summer, farmers should have no worries regarding their crop insurance policy’s ability to pay.

“The crop insurance industry is on the ground in the drought-stricken areas, mobilizing loss-adjuster teams,” says Thomas P. Zacharias, president, National Crop Insurance Services in a statement released today.

“Farmers can be assured their claims will be paid, and that the companies will move as quickly and as efficiently as possible, given the expected volume of claims, to assess damages and get indemnity checks into the hands of farmers,” Zacharias says.

Claim volume will be huge. Recent USDA crop report estimates indicated significant losses for corn and soybeans, result of the heat stress and extreme drought that covers much of the Corn Belt.

“Although this was the largest corn crop planted since 1937, production is projected to be down 13 percent, the lowest output since 2006,” Zacharias says. “Corn yields are expected to average 123.4 bushels per acre, down nearly 24 bushels from last year, which would be the lowest average yield since 1995. Soybean production is forecast to be down by 12 percent from last year, and if realized, would have the lowest average yield since 2003.”

Zacharias says most farmers in drought-stressed areas are covered by crop insurance.

“Some farmers in these affected areas have purchased crop insurance policies for years and have never collected an indemnity. This year, their decision to purchase crop insurance confirms their practice of sound risk management.”

Tess Vigeland: Congress left for its summer vacation without coming up with a drought relief package for farmers and ranchers.

But that doesn’t mean they’re all left high and dry. A lot of farmers are going to get help from crop insurance. And that could put a crimp in the bottom line of insurance companies — and taxpayers. Marketplace’s Adriene Hill explains.

Adriene Hill: Corn is supposed to be green and tall this time of year.

It’s not.

Doug Yoder: It’s brown.

Doug Yoder is with the Illinois Farm Bureau. He says it’s brown and/or short, depending on where you are.

But scrawny plants don’t always add up to scrawny paychecks. Most corn and soybean farmers — and we’re talking big-scale farmers here — have crop insurance. The feds pick up a big part of the tab, farmers pay the rest.

Yoder: Anybody that drops a seed in the ground and hopes to make a living on that, you’re accustomed to taking risks. But there are also limits to those risks that you can take, and we’ll be testing those limits this year. There’s no doubt about it.

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) — As the drought continues to ravage the nation’s corn, wheat and soybean fields, crop insurance losses are expected to break records.

With nearly half of the continental United States under severe drought conditions, crop insurance losses are mounting daily, according to a report from the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln released on Thursday.

“It will be a major loss situation,” said Thomas Zacharias, president of the National Crop Insurance Services, a lobbying group representing private crop insurers. “The companies are in the field adjusting claims as we speak.”

An economist with the group roughly estimated that losses could top $20 billion.

And taxpayers will ultimately shoulder most of the cost the nation’s scorched fields.

While there are no official estimates available yet, National Crop Insurance Services Economist Keith Collins said crop losses this year look as bad or worse than other terrible drought years.