Crop Insurance

 The USDA’s Farm Service Agency in Idaho announced that producers who did not obtain crop insurance or Non-insured Crop Disaster Assistance Program coverage for 2008 can pay a buy-in fee through May 18, 2009, to become eligible for 2008 disaster assistance programs. Producers who have not already taken the necessary steps to become eligible for the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Program (SURE), Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish (ELAP), and the Tree Assistance Program (TAP) are required to pay a $100 “buy-in” fee per crop.  The maximum fee is $300 per county, per producer, not to exceed $900 for multi-county producers.

Here’s Geoff Mitchell, Farm Program Specialist. “Basically what it’s doing is it’s allowing the producer to purchase what’s called a buy-in which makes them eligible to participate in the disaster program but it does not actually give them insurance or insurance coverage…it’s actually allowing them to buy in as if they had originally purchased insurance at at least a catastrophic level and that way they can apply or participate in the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Program and some of the other ones we have, but just from that standpoint. They don’t actually have insurance or insurance coverage. It’s just a buy-in to participate in this new program.”