A USDA crop insurance program that can benefit beekeepers
Ana Heck and Florencia Colella | Farmers Advance
Beekeepers know that unavoidable natural causes can have a huge impact on colony health and production. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) offers risk management programs, and its new Micro Farm Program may be a good fit for many beekeeping operations with up to $100,000 in revenue. This subsidized program can help beekeepers mitigate risk, especially in situations where weather or market conditions can impact production and revenue.
The Micro Farm Program protects against revenue losses due to unavoidable natural causes or local market price decline. For example, beekeepers who lose production and revenue due to drought, cool/wet weather or excessive rainfall may be eligible to file a claim. Beekeepers may also be able to file a claim if they lose revenue due to honey bee pests and diseases if they can show that they took steps to properly manage the issue. Losses due to failure or breakdown of equipment, vandalism or pesticide exposure are not insurable.
The Micro Farm Program allows all farm commodities to be under one insurance policy and added value from post-production activities like packaging or processing is insurable. For example, honey can be insured at the price it is sold at market, not just at the bulk honey price after it is extracted. Revenue from sales of hive products, such as candles, lip balms or lotions, and from livestock, such as nucleus colonies and queens, can also be insured.
Many beekeepers may find that the Micro Farm Program is a good fit for their operations. For example, beekeepers who keep bees as a side business may want to avoid using their primary job’s income to subsidize losses from their beekeeping operation. The program can be beneficial to small operations that are debt leveraged or are considering borrowing money because many banks look positively at risk management programs. Beekeeping operations that are growing may also benefit from the program. Growing can be a tough and scary time but knowing a portion of your expected revenue is covered can help the beekeeper sleep at night.
The Micro Farm Program is a new pilot program. It may change in future years. To learn more about this program, please read the Micro Farm Program National Fact Sheet.
Who is eligible to apply for the Micro Farm Program?
Producers must make less than $100,000 in approved revenue to apply to the Micro Farm Program. If you don’t qualify because your revenue is greater than $100,000, you may be interested in other USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA) programs, like Whole-Farm Revenue Protection.
People who purchase a beekeeping operation can use previous tax records from before the operation was purchased so long as a minimum of 90% of the operation was purchased. Producers must also have tax records and sales records for at least 2019-2021. They cannot be vertically integrated. For example, a beekeeper who has one operation for honey production and another separate operation for activities like marketing, packing and sales would not be eligible for the Micro Farm Program.
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