What’s New: Risk Management Agency (RMA) and the 2018 Farm Bill

Overview

•	 The 2018 Farm Bill makes several improvements to existing insurance products, speeds 

the creation of numerous new products, and strengthens the integrity of the program 

through new outreach and compliance requirements.

Improved Prices and Actuarial Data

•	 Actuarial operations, like determining price elections and yields, will use more internal 

USDA data, including data from the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) and 

Farm Service Agency (FSA).

Specialty Crops

•	 Allows for the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) to offer policies 

for industrial hemp. 

•	 Creates Specialty Crop Liaisons in each RMA Regional Office.

•	 Creates a dedicated Specialty Crop website.

•	 Requires RMA to submit to the Board, for consideration, more specialty crop insurance 

products and expansions for existing specialty crop insurance.

Conservation and Cover Cropping

•	 Specifies cover cropping as a good farming practice if done per Natural Resources 

Conservation Service (NRCS) guidelines.

•	 Clarifies insurability of subsequent crops and the applicability of the summer 

fallow practice. 

•	 Segments penalties for native sod on land tilled between current and 2014 Farm Bills.

•	 Limits penalties for newly tilled land on native sod to four cumulative years.

New Policy Features

•	 Allows for an enterprise unit to include land across county lines.

•	 Requires underwriting rules to cap individual actual production history declines at 10 

percent when due to insurable causes of loss.

•	 Creates a Veteran Farmer or Rancher category so veteran farmers will receive additional 

benefits.

Underserved Producers

•	 Requires recurring study to increase participation in states and for underserved producers.

•	 Defines Beginning Farmer as having not held an insurable interest for more than 10 years 

for the Whole Farm Revenue Protection Program.

•	 Requires the USDA to select State-level Beginning Farmer or Rancher coordinators.

•	 Creates a Veteran Farmer or Rancher category like current Beginning Farmer or Rancher, 

which means veteran farmers will receive additional crop insurance benefits such as an 

increased subsidy.

Treatment of Forage and Grazing

•	 Repeals ban on catastrophic coverage for crops and grasses used for grazing.

•	 Allows for separate coverage on crops that are both grazed and mechanically harvested.

www.rma.usda.gov

Risk Management Agency

USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.
Private Product Submissions

•	 Allows for submitters of approved Concept Proposals to receive records collected for 

their products in the same manner as 508(h) private product owners.

•	 Defines 508(h) reimbursement costs more specifically to use two times the Bureau of 

Labor Statistics wage rate plus benefits.

•	 Clarifies Approved Insurance Providers vs. applicant roles within the maintenance of policies.

•	 Allows resubmission of reimbursement requests which the board previously denied since 

Oct. 1, 2016.

FCIC Board of Directors (Board) Operations

•	 Updates board procedures and instructions to improve operations and reflect other updates to services.

Administrative Fees

•	 Increases catastrophic coverage fee from $300 to $655.

Program Integrity and Efficiency

•	 Adds NASS data as a source for the FSA program monitoring used for program compliance.

•	 Requires Approved Insurance Providers (AIPs) to submit actual production history data to RMA 

within 30 days of the producer’s production reporting date.

•	 Requires FCIC to expand continuing education requirements for loss adjusters and agents.

•	 Requires stakeholder meetings to research ways to reduce paperwork and find efficiencies for 

the Whole Farm Revenue Protection product.

•	 Adds authority for the National Institute of Food and Agriculture to awards grants to for producer education.

Funding Adjustments

•	 Reduces a program administration fund from $9M to $7M.

•	 Reduces funding for contracting from $12.5M to $8M but focuses the fund for research 

and development purposes. 

•	 Increases funding for partnerships from $5M to $10M, including at least $5M towards 

underserved producers.

Interagency Impacts

•	 If producers switch to Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC), they may not purchase Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) coverage for that crop on that FSA farm. If producers 

enroll in ARC or Price Loss Coverage (PLC) for seed cotton, they may not purchase Price 

Loss Coverage (PLC).

•	 Removes the prohibition on Livestock Gross Margin with participation in Dairy Margin 

Coverage (formerly Margin Protection Program).

•	 Continues support for the Acreage Crop Reporting Streamlining Initiative.

•	 Limits liability of agents and AIPs when using FSA data.

Reports to Congress on New Research and Development

•	 Study subjects include: tropical storm or hurricane insurance; quality loss; citrus insurance; hops insurance; subsurface irrigation; grain sorghum insurance improvements; 

limited irrigation; rice irrigation practices; a greenhouse insurance policy; a local foods insurance policy; and a corn, cotton, and soybean production on batture land in the Lower 

Mississippi River Valley.

www.rma.usda.gov

Risk Management Agency

USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.