OMAHA (DTN) -- Farmers in regions prone to wet springs where prevented planting is a high risk will no longer have the option to buy-up prevented-planting coverage under a rule change issued by USDA.

The Federal Crop Insurance Corp. (FCIC) last Friday published a rule in the Federal Register dubbed "Expanding Access to Risk Protection" that made several changes to insurance policies, some of which were part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act while others were framed as streamlining or deregulation moves.

The FCIC sets crop insurance rules for USDA's Risk Management Agency (RMA) to administer. Most of the provisions in the rule help farmers and clarify crop-insurance policy rules, but one provision stands out as eliminating a coverage option.

The rule eliminated the ability of farmers to increase their prevented-planting coverage, and the rule makes a point of noting the change was made because "the buy-up coverage is mainly benefitting farmers in the Dakotas seeking to plant in the Prairie Pothole Region, where the majority of prevented-panting crop insurance payments are made."

Prevented-planting coverage is part of every crop insurance policy, but farmers have been given the option in the past to increase prevented-planting coverage by 5% to 10%. USDA then reduced it, so farmers were limited to a 5% buy-up on prevented-planting.

Under the rule, the FCIC posted that buy-up for prevented-planting not only benefits mainly farmers in North Dakota and South Dakota, but it isn't needed because Congress will take care of those producers with ad-hoc payments later on.

"This is no longer needed because Congress has a history of addressing widespread flooding through ad-hoc disaster assistance, such as the 2019 supplemental bill that funded prevented planting 'top-off' payments, providing an additional 10% to 15% to eligible producers who had already received prevented planting indemnities," the Federal Register notice stated.

The 2019 legislation and prevented-planting "top-off" payments came after historic flooding that led to an unusually high 19.7 million acres of prevented planting that affected the entire Corn Belt.

Ad-hoc payments, however, often can take multiple years to pass Congress. Last year, for instance, Congress provided aid to cover natural disasters from both 2023 and 2024, and the payments from that -- the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program -- are still being made. Congress also fell billions of dollars short in covering disasters in 2022 under the Emergency Relief Program.

USDA's press office for the Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC), which includes the Risk Management Agency, did not respond to questions Wednesday about the prevented-planting policy change.

DTN reached out to multiple farm organizations in the Dakotas about the plan. The presidents of the North Dakota and South Dakota Farmers Union organizations each criticized the move as reducing risk management tools for farmers.

"Preventive Plant and the buy up for North Dakota farmers is an essential tool for us," said Mark Watne, president of the North Dakota Farmers Union. "It is where farmers can purchase additional coverage to minimize weather impacts. It seems we are getting kicked in the gut again when our markets are impacted by tariffs and profitability is nearly impossible."

Doug Sombke, president of the South Dakota Farmers Union, said as many as 90% of farmers who buy crop insurance from SDFU will buy-up the prevented-planting coverage. "The reason RMA gives for dropping it is very unrealistic," Sombke said. "Congress doesn't issue ad-hoc payments for small storms or isolated losses. That's a very poor reason for dropping a safety net when farmers are facing rough times."

The new rule is considered final and effective for the 2026-crop year. Still, the FCIC will accept comments on the rule changes until Jan. 27, 2026.

The Dakotas often are among the states with higher prevented-planting claims but other states such as Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas also often have large acreage that could not be planted in the normal planting window.

Farm Service Agency (FSA) data on prevented planting for 2025 shows nearly 4.9 million acres went unplanted -- though it is unclear how many of those acres were covered by a prevented-planting policy that included a buy-up.

Top states for prevented planting reporting this year:

-- Arkansas, 889,366 acres

-- Mississippi, 458,932 acres

-- Kansas, 426,932 acres

-- North Dakota, 382,994 acres

-- Texas, 285,168 acres

Other provisions included in the crop insurance rule changes are more beneficial to producers.

BEGINNING FARMER PROVISION

A big change for beginning farmers and ranchers will extend lower premiums for them going forward. FCIC is changing the definition of beginning farmer and rancher as a producer from five crop years to 10 crop years to go along with the change. Farmers with 10 or fewer crop years under their belt will see increased premium subsidies of 15% for two years; a 13% premium subsidy for one year and an 11% premium subsidy for their fourth crop year. For crop years five through 10, those producers will receive a 10% premium subsidy.

In the past, beginning farmers received an additional 10% premium subsidy for five years.

PP ONE-IN-FOUR CHANGE

In another prevented planting change, USDA will drop the requirement that insurers verify that an acreage was insured under the one-in-four rule. The one-in-four rule requires that for a piece of ground to be eligible for prevented planting payments, the acreage must have been planted, insured and harvested at least once in the past four years. But verifying that acreage has been insured has been complicated for both insurance companies and producers if the operator has changed during that time. Insurers and producers will have to continue to verify the planting and harvesting history of the acreage.

CHANGING INSURERS

The rule also adds language so farmers who transfer their policies to a new insurance company for the next crop year do not need to provide end-of-year production data to either their current or new insurance provider if they do not have a claim on their current crop. Policies had required farmers to report their production to their current insurer even if they transferred their policy to a new company for the upcoming year.

Unlike the changes in PP, the rule noted this move "was developed to address concerns from AIPs (insurers), agents and policyholders in multiple conferences, meetings and individual requests for relief. This is an added protection for the producer participating in crop insurance," the Federal Register notice stated.

HARVEST PRICE FOR AREA PLANS

For crops covered under Area Risk Protection Insurance (ARPI) in which there is not an easy method to determine harvest prices with a simple methodology, the harvest prices will be set equal to the projected price for the crop that was set before policies were purchased. The rule posting stated the prior method of FCIC determining the harvest price "did not provide producers with advance notice about how the price would be determined."

CLARIFY WITH INSURANCE PROVIDER

The rule also includes specific insurance changes for cotton, sugar beets, safflower, fresh market tomatoes, peas, peppers, canola and rapeseed and forage seeding.

Farmers should check with their insurance agents to clarify how policy changes could affect their premiums and potential indemnities.

To read the full rule, "Expanding Access to Risk Protection," go to https://www.federalregister.gov/….

Also see, "RMA Champions Crop Insurance Policy Changes in One Big Beautiful Bill Act," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com

Follow him on social platform X @ChrisClaytonDTN

(c) Copyright 2025 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.