Other Ag News: Find a Crop Insurance Agent Who Sells Whole-Farm Revenue Protection Near You

This week, the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Risk Management Agency (RMA) published a directory of crop insurance agents that specialize in selling Whole-Farm Revenue Protection. This resource – which the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) has advocated for – will be an important tool to help farmers locate crop insurance agents who have experience selling Whole-Farm Revenue Protection and Micro Farm insurance in their state. 

The Whole-Farm Revenue Protection (WFRP) program is a novel crop insurance product that offers farmers nationwide the option to insure against revenue loss for their entire operation, including crop, livestock, and nursery production, under a single policy. It is the first insurance policy intended to cover smaller, diversified operations, and even includes a premium discount for crop diversification in recognition of its inherent risk-reduction impact. The Micro Farm option within WFRP offers a streamlined insurance product to producers with an average revenue of up to $350,000. 

Farmers interested in enrolling in WFRP or Micro Farm often report challenges to finding an insurance agent with sufficient knowledge or desire to sell insurance to smaller-scale and diversified operations. Tailoring a WFRP policy to farms that grow a diversity of specialty or organic crops is a more time- and labor-intensive endeavor, and one that agents are not always trained to do.

Despite this common obstacle, a niche market of crop insurance agents has taken root that specializes in selling the product to small, specialty crop, and diverse farmers. RMA’s new directory directing farmers to these agents fulfills an NSAC recommendation to enhance the delivery of the product.

1,135 agents are included on the inaugural list of crop insurance agents that specialize in selling Whole-Farm Revenue Protection. The list of agents from RMA will continue to be updated periodically through April 15, 2024. To be included in the list, crop insurance agents self-identified themselves as willing WFRP and Micro Farm agents. Prior experience selling a WFRP policy was not a prerequisite to inclusion on the list. These agents are licensed to sell in all 50 states, with at least two in every state, and a numerical breakdown by state is below.

Find the full list of agents by state as of February 15th here.

Improving WFRP in the Farm Bill 

The most recent, comprehensive analysis of the performance of WFRP can be found in NSAC’s new report, Unsustainable: State of the Farm Safety Net. NSAC has listened to farmers in the fields since the implementation of WFRP and advocated to strengthen the accessibility and performance of the program. This includes ongoing dialogue with USDA to continually improve the product. A new directory of agents selling WFRP is just one of the positive steps RMA has taken in recent years to expand access to the product, and the next farm bill presents another crucial opportunity to introduce reforms needed to overcome persistent barriers. 

The Whole-Farm Revenue Protection Program Improvement Act (S.2598) was introduced by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) in July 2023 to streamline access to WFRP and strengthen the product for enrolled farmers. The bill currently has nine co-sponsors, most serving on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry: Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Peter Welch (D-VT), John Fetterman (D-PA), Tina Smith (D-MN), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Michael Bennet (D-CO), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT). Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) was an original champion who pushed to include the development of WFRP in the 2014 Farm Bill.

The WFRP Improvement Act would specifically:

• Authorize the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) to carry out research and development to increase crop insurance participation by farmers marketing to local and regional markets.
• Clarify that producers are permitted to enroll in a WFRP plan in addition to other insurance plans.
• Authorize the FCIC to consider expanding the diversification premium discount to farmers that utilize a resource-conserving crop rotation.
• Direct the FCIC to implement several targeted modifications to WFRP design and delivery to improve effectiveness for specialty crops and diversified farms.
• Reduce paperwork burdens by clarifying that Schedule F tax forms are sufficient to establish historic revenue and that agents only may request additional paperwork if tax records are incomplete.
• Prohibit the adjustment of price and production expectations at the time of submission of a loss claim.
• Apply the streamlined application process introduced in the Micro Farm pilot to producers with at least $1 million in gross revenue, to include all small and mid-sized farms as defined by USDA.
• Raise the annual 35% limit to historic gross revenue expansion to the lower of 100% or $500,000, to allow beginning and scaling farmers to be insured at a level that keeps pace with rapid operational growth.
• Expand the diversification premium discount to apply to producers with at least 10 commodities, encouraging more diverse farmers to enroll in the program.
• Moderate the impact of disaster years by including Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program payouts as historic gross revenue or by establishing a floor to how much historic gross revenue may fall annually.
• Compensate crop insurance agents appropriately for Whole-Farm Revenue Protection sales in a manner determined by the Secretary, overcoming a key barrier for agents who are reluctant or refuse to sell WFRP policies.

NSAC and our members remain committed to advancing provisions in the next farm bill that will expand access to the farm safety net for producers growing fruits and vegetables to feed their communities.

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