Photo courtesy of Envato Elements
From staff reports
Four senators from North Dakota and Minnesota along with three Minnesota Senators and a House member from North Dakota have written a letter to USDA Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack asking him to extend crop insurance coverage beyond the normal final planting dates in order to boost crop production this fall. The senators cite food inflation and looming grain stocks shortages as reasons for farmers to stay in the fields longer and produce crops. The letter also asks for USDA to provide payments to farmers to help mitigate declining crop insurance guarantees after insurance planting dates pass.
The legislators hope that by doing this, farmers would be incentivized to continue to plant with payments made to producers with qualifying losses equivalent to any reduction in their crop insurance guarantee. This will lead to farmers planting regardless of deadlines. The money would come from Commodity Credit Corporation funds for this plan.