GRP and GRIP Policy Changes

Posted by: Suzanne Lois, Agricultural Risk Advisor

The RMA (Risk Management Agency) of the Federal Crop Insurance program has made the following changes listed below to your Group Risk Plan (GRP). If you have a GRP/GRIP policy it will automatically roll into a similar policy in the new Area Risk Protection Insurance policy (ARPI) unless you indicate by the sales closing date otherwise. After reviewing the choices below, you may want to change or cancel your Area Risk Protection Insurance policy. In regards to fall crop policies (i.e. wheat/ forage), the sales closing date will be September 30, 2013. For spring crop policies (i.e. corn, soybeans, etc.), all changes and/or cancellations of your policy must be done by the sales close date of March 15th, 2014.

ARPI (Area Risk Protection Insurance)
• Replaces GRP (Group Risk Plan) and GRIP (Group Risk Income Protection)
• Uses multiple data sources for settling and determining county yields (NASS is no longer the only source that will be used for determination)

4 Types of Area Risk Protection Insurance policies to choose from:

1. Area Yield Protection – An insurance plan that provides protections against loss of yield due to a county level production loss. This plan does not provide a loss of revenue or upside harvest price protection.

2. Area Revenue Protection – An insurance plan that provides protection against loss of revenue due to a county level production loss, a price decline, or a combination of both. This plan also includes upside harvest price protection, which increases your policy protection at the end of the insurance period if the harvest price is greater than the projected price and if there is a production loss.

3. Area Revenue Protection with Harvest Price Exclusion – An insurance plan that provides protection against loss of revenue due to a county production loss, price decline, or a combination of both. This plan DOES NOT provide upside harvest price protection.

4. CAT (Catastrophic Protection) – An insurance plan that provides coverage at the minimum of 65% coverage level and 45% of the price. This policy is $300/crop/county.

Payment dates (unless otherwise specified in the special provisions) if an indemnity is due, will be issued prior to May 16 (for wheat the payment date will be prior to May 1).

New Policy Requirements:

• Must choose a coverage level and a protection factor (80%-120%)

• Must have crops planted by the final planting date. A crop planted past the final plant date is NOT insurable under the new ARPI

• Must report production starting in the crop year of 2014 with mandatory reporting of production to be in effect with the 2015 crop year (Penalties will apply if production is not reported in 2015) *note: <ARPI forage will not have any production reporting requirements>

• The sales close date is September 30th, 2013 for all fall crops, which includes wheat and forage

If you have any further questions regarding the GRP/GRIP policy changes or want more information, feel free to give me a call at 262-210-0989. Also, for more information visit: http://www.rma.usda.gov/.