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The Indiana State Department of Agriculture, The Nature Conservancy and the United States Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency have joined forces to implement the Cover Crop Premium Discount Program for the fifth year in a row.
Beginning Jan. 1, 2025, this program will provide farmers with a unique opportunity to receive financial incentives for implementing cover crops on their operation. Farmers who plant cover crops on owned or rented acres will receive a $5 per acre crop insurance premium discount. Farmers who planted cover crops in the fall of 2024 are eligible to apply. This program is eligible for 50 out of the 92 counties in Indiana.
Crop insurance is an integral part of the farm safety net that provides financial protection for farmers after bad weather impacts their crops. Cover crops can provide many benefits which include helping to prevent erosion, improving water quality and making soils more resilient to weather and climate impacts.
The Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA), The Nature Conservancy and partners throughout the state have worked with the USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA) to establish an initiative to increase cover crop usage in Indiana. Our focus for this program is to target first time cover crop users in an effort to expand awareness and the adoption of cover crops as a tool to improve farm resiliency.
This project will provide eligible participants with a $5/acre premium discount on the following year's crop insurance invoice for every acre of cover crop enrolled and verified in the program. Funding will be provided through RMA as an additional insurance premium discount through normal crop insurance processes. Only acres in cover crops (absent other state or federally incentivized cover crops) will be eligible for the premium discount. Confirmed applications will be forwarded to the USDA-RMA for processing premium discounts on crop insurance premium invoices for the 2024 cash crop. Applicants must certify that by signing up for this program, they give ISDA permission to share the information provided to the USDA-RMA for administering the benefit to the beneficiary as documented on the application. Applicants also convey permission to ISDA or SWCD representative(s) access to the property enrolled, if necessary, to verify cover crop establishment ISDA will verify applications and respective acreage. Being a first-time cover crop user is not a requirement but will be given priority for funding. ISDA may contact applicants for additional clarifying information.
Applicants must maintain documentation on cover crops that have been seeded (e.g. Seed Tags, Application Invoices) and utilize the Midwest Cover Crop Council - Cover Crop Tool or the NRCS Field Office Technical Guide recommendations. This includes seeding dates, appropriate seeding rates and seed mixes to ensure objectives of the cover crop are being met. A cover crop is considered: "a non-grain harvestable, non-insurable conservation/agronomic practice seeded in the fall to protect and improve soil and water quality." To ensure the practice achieves the desired results, no full width tillage/termination of the cover crop in the fall is allowed. Management/termination of the cover crops must be done in the spring in accordance with the most recent version of the USDA-NRCS Cover Crop Termination Guidelines. This guidance not only informs proper management of cover crops but must also be followed to maintain eligibility for federal crop insurance.
The Cover Crop Premium Discount Program is available in the following counties: Bartholomew, Boone, Brown, Clark, Crawford, Daviess, Dearborn, Decatur, Delaware, Dubois, Fayette, Floyd, Franklin, Gibson, Greene, Hamilton, Hancock, Harrison, Hendricks, Henry, Jackson, Jefferson, Jennings, Johnson, Knox, Lawrence, Madison, Marion, Martin, Monroe, Morgan, Ohio, Orange, Owen, Perry, Pike, Posey, Randolph, Ripley, Rush, Scott, Shelby, Spencer, Switzerland, Tipton, Union, Vanderburgh, Warrick, Washington and Wayne.