Casten, 19 Colleagues Renew Call to Boost Soil Health and Align Crop Insurance with Risk Mitigation Practices
Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Congressman Sean Casten (IL-06) led 19 of his colleagues in a letter to House Agriculture Committee Leadership urging them to include a voluntary crop insurance premium incentive program for farmers who plant cover crops in the upcoming Farm Bill.
“The Farm Bill provides an opportunity to align crop insurance with risk-reducing soil health practices,” the lawmakers wrote. “The Federal Crop Insurance Program (FCIP) is widely used to stabilize farm incomes, improving farm survivability by seven years on average, and reducing the probability of bankruptcy by 70%. Unfortunately, FCIP costs are expected to increase by up to 37% if climate adaptation practices, like cover crops, are not utilized.”
Drought, rain, and extreme weather have stressed America’s soils and crop insurance payments have risen more than 400% for drought-related losses, and nearly 300% for rain and flooding-related losses between 1995 and 2020. Without mitigating actions, climate change will continue to exacerbate losses and the cost of the Federal Crop Insurance Program (FCIP) could increase anywhere from 10 to 37%.
Cover crops are a solution to help farmers mitigate risk. A 2023 study found that higher cover-crop adoption led to lower levels of crop insurance losses due to prevented planting. Another study found that just a 1% increase in cover crop adoption led to nearly $40 million in savings.
Rep. Casten has introduced a voluntary crop insurance program with the Conservation Opportunity and Voluntary Environment Resilience Program (COVER) Act, which would recognize the reduced risk associated with cover crops, therefore lowering financial barriers for farmers investing in their soil.
In addition to Rep. Casten, the letter was signed by Reps. Adams, Blumenauer, Bonamici, Brownley, Foster, Kelly, Khanna, Kim, Krishnamoorthi, Levin, McGovern, Porter, Quigley, Salinas, Schakowsky, Schneider, Schrier, Slotkin, and Stansbury.
The text of the letter can be found here or below.
Dear Chairman Glenn Thompson and Ranking Chair David Scott,
Thank you for your leadership in drafting a Farm Bill this year. We write to strongly urge you to support the inclusion of a voluntary crop insurance premium incentive for farmers who use cover crops in the upcoming Farm Bill.
The Farm Bill provides an opportunity to align crop insurance with risk-reducing soil health practices. Cover crop premium savings programs have a proven history of success at both the state and federal levels. The Risk Management Agency (RMA) has partnered with Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, and Wisconsin to create popular state programs that have incentivized adoptions of cover crops on thousands of acres, and in 2021 and 2022, RMA supported a federal program called the Pandemic Cover Crop Program (PCCP). The PCCP offered a voluntary, user-friendly option for farmers to save money by planting cover crops, including those who did not have access to a state program, by providing a $5 per acre crop insurance savings for farmers. Support for the program was not limited to just one region; farmers in 48 states enrolled over 12 million acres in the PCCP in 2021, and the program was permitted to be combined with available state funding to significantly increase crop insurance savings for farmers.
The Federal Crop Insurance Program (FCIP) is widely used to stabilize farm incomes, improving farm survivability by seven years on average, and reducing the probability of bankruptcy by 70%. Unfortunately, FCIP costs are expected to increase by up to 37% if climate adaptation practices, like cover crops, are not utilized. Farms that do not use risk-mitigating practices are more vulnerable to increasingly frequent extreme weather events and add costs to the FCIP. In contrast, the use of cover crops is associated with reduced risk that can reduce crop insurance claims, especially in drought and flood years. University of Illinois and USDA research shows that in 2019, farmers who planted cover crops and used no-till methods were 24% less likely to
claim prevented planting loss due to unusually wet weather. Aligning the FCIP with risk-reducing practices like cover crops is a commonsense measure to reduce costs to taxpayers and improve the crop insurance program’s financial sustainability.
Cover crops boost farm incomes by enhancing soil health, including reduced erosion and nutrient loss, sequestering carbon, suppressing weed growth, and fixing nitrogen for cash crop use. Healthy soils have higher water-holding capacity, and reduced runoff, which also lead to water quality improvements. Despite these economic and environmental benefits, as of the 2017 USDA census, cover crops were only planted on about 5% of cropland acres. A per acre crop insurance premium cost reduction, for example, such as the one proposed in H.R. 3478, the Conservation Opportunity and Voluntary Environment Resilience Program (COVER) Act, would recognize the reduced risk associated with cover crops, therefore lowering financial barriers for farmers
investing in their soil.
According to a 2023 poll conducted by the National Wildlife Federation, 78% of U.S. row crop farmers support discounted crop insurance premiums for producers who use in-field risk-reducing conservation practices like cover crops. Unfortunately, funding for the PCCP expired in 2023, though the demand for a similar program remains; by seeding the ground for the future, including a cover crop incentive in the upcoming Farm Bill will modernize the crop insurance program, help farmers transition to a critical soil health practice, and equip U.S.
farms and ranches to address 21st century problems.
As the Agriculture Committee works to develop a draft Farm Bill, we urge the committee to include such a program in the final package. Aligning risk with the positive benefits of cover crops will strengthen the crop insurance program, deliver key environmental, and water quality benefits, and help farmers realize the promise of a more prosperous future.
Sincerely,
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