Photo Courtesy of USB
Crop insurance provided much-needed support to producers in 2019. According to data from USDA’s Risk Management Agency, more than 19 million acres nationwide were prevented from planting in 2019; approximately 5.5 million were soybean acres. Following these planting challenges were droughts in some areas and early snow preventing harvest in others.
The president’s budget proposals for fiscal year 2021 propose restricting farm program eligibility, eliminating crop insurance premium subsidy for producers meeting a certain income threshold, and reducing premium subsidy for all. ASA opposes these and other cuts to the farm safety net proposed in the budget.