The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced changes to the Enhanced Coverage Option (ECO) beginning with the 2025 crop year. USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) is expanding coverage options to additional crops as well as increasing premium support to make the policy more affordable for producers.
“The Risk Management Agency is continually responding to producer needs and adapting our insurance coverage options to give producers more choices when it comes to managing their risks,” said RMA Administrator Marcia Bunger. “This expansion is part of RMA’s larger effort to provide more options for specialty crop producers.”
ECO is currently approved for 36 crops and RMA is expanding coverage options to almonds, apples, blueberries, grapes, and walnuts for the 2025 crop year and to citrus crops where the Supplemental Coverage Option is currently available in California and Arizona for the 2026 crop year.
Additionally, RMA is increasing premium support for all crops covered by ECO to 65% to make the policy more affordable.
ECO provides additional area-based coverage for a portion of a producer’s underlying crop insurance policy deductible. ECO can be purchased as an endorsement to Yield Protection, Revenue Protection, Revenue Protection with the Harvest Price Exclusion or Actual Production History. ECO offers producers a choice of 90 or 95% trigger levels. Trigger is the percentage of expected yield or revenue at which a loss becomes payable.
ECO coverage is unaffected by participation in USDA’s Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) Agriculture Risk Coverage program for the same crop, on the same acres. Producers may select ECO regardless of FSA farm program election.
Source : usda.gov