Preparation Underway to Implement Next Farm Bill Programs

There is no sense on when the 2018 Farm Bill will be finalized and voted on, but work is underway to prepare for that day.

Tom Zacharias of National Crop Insurance Services said they are working with the USDA’s Risk Management Agency to be ready to implement the programs and policies.

“We had a great relationship working through the 2014 Farm Bill and we would anticipate the same coming into the next one.”

The goal is to work together and be able to implement the new crop insurance products in a timely fashion.

Zacharias said it’s a lot of work to implement these new programs.

“We rolled up our sleeves and took supplemental coverage, yield exclusion, beginning farmer; all those provisions one by one and then got those into the system and put them in place.”

Working ahead can save time. For example, the supplemental insurance coverage program was in place within a year of the law being put into place.