Risk Management Agency (RMA) Administrator Brandon Willis hosted a discussion about current crop insurance issues with the American Soybean Association (ASA) and other farm and lending groups last week.

Soybeans remain the second-ranked insured commodity, with 2015 liability of $24.3 billion. Corn is ranked first with almost $40 billion of total liability; wheat is a distant third with $8.4 billion. Cotton, almonds, rice, nursery, grapes, orange trees and apples round out the top 10.

Organic and specialty crop participation are growing rapidly; whole farm revenue protection now has policies in 42 states, with 50 percent of that liability in Washington, Idaho and Oregon.

The new Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) gained little market share in soybeans, with liability of only $17 million. The yield exclusion (YE) option created in the 2014 farm bill likewise saw little interest, with only 5 percent of insured soybean acres buying the yield exclusion option. The largest percent of participation for YE has been for prunes, with 39 percent of insured acres.

Willis explained that the 20-year average loss ratio for the crop insurance program is 0.87, well below the 1.00 loss ratio mandated by law.

Willis also discussed changes to double-cropping procedures, which have been important to soybean farmers in a number of areas. Changes to double cropping rules will allow eligible double cropping acres to be based on either the greatest number of acres double cropped in two of the past four crop years, or the percentage of acres historically double cropped in two of the past four crop years in which the first insured crop was planted.

ASA supported these changes in December 2015 comments to RMA. More information about the double cropping revisions is available here.