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Risk Management Agency changes specialty crop reporting requirements

USDA’s Risk Management Agency has changed some rules for specialty crop insurance reporting. 

Administrator Marcia Bunger tells Brownfield the changes will simplify the process. “We are looking at a new marketing certification that allows producers to self-identify if they will not have a disinterested third-party record when required, and it enables them to use their own supporting production records.”

Bunger says the changes eliminate the need for approved insurance providers to do a pre-harvest appraisal, which can often interfere with harvesting, marketing, and other normal business.

And Bunger says the producers will have the flexibility for how they keep the needed records, whether electronically or hand-written. “Whatever method of record-keeping system that they are currently using will work. Probably the only thing that won’t work is if they just capture all of that information in their head.”

Bunger says she’s hopeful the changes help the small-scale producers, who often work alone and sell through direct marketing and farmers’ markets.