On July 20, 2020, the Risk Management Agency (RMA) issued Product Management Bulletin: PM-20-049, announcing that the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation Board of Directors approved the Production and Revenue History (PRH) Pilot Crop Insurance Program for strawberries and published the PRH Pilot Plan of Insurance General Provisions and the Strawberry Crop Insurance Program effective for the 2021 and succeeding years. https://www.rma.usda.gov/en/Policy-and-Procedure/Bulletins-and-Memos/2020/PM-20-049; https://www.rma.usda.gov/-/media/RMAweb/Policies/Production-Revenue-History/2021/Production-and-Revenue-History-General-Provisions.ashx; https://www.rma.usda.gov/-/media/RMAweb/Policies/Strawberry—PRH/2021/Production-and-Rrevnue-History-Strawberry-Pilot-Crop-Provisions.ashx. RMA also issued a National Press Release. https://www.rma.usda.gov/en/RMALocal/Field-Offices/Regional-Offices/Valdosta-Georgia-Regional-Office-Page/Region-News/2020-News/FL-CA-Strawberries
RMA states that it developed PRH for specialty crops to provide revenue coverage in addition to yield coverage. PRH includes: 1) a choice of yield or one of two revenue plans—Revenue Protection and Revenue Protection Plus; 2) coverage based on the producer’s personal yield and revenue histories, generating individualized coverage; and 3) a requirement of annual revenue reporting in addition to customary production reporting.
RMA states that the program is available in Hardee, Hillsborough, Manatee, and Polk counties, Florida for the 2021 crop year and for the 2022 crop year in California counties where the Actual Revenue History Strawberry crop insurance program is available.
ANALYSIS – No other information regarding how this new plan of insurance operates was made available. It appears that this is a new plan of insurance that appears to combine the personal history and revenue of the producer with a projected price based on the lesser of the personal projected price or the price published in the actuarial documents. There is a Plus component where the lower of the revised weighted average harvest price or the approved projected price is used to value production to count. No explanation is provided. From this minimal release, it is not possible to determine how the policy works without going through the policy line by line. Hopefully, RMA will follow up with additional information describing how this plan of insurance is intended to work.
All statements made are opinions of the author and are not intended to provide legal opinions or legal advice.