Cover crop premium discount program offered

INDIANAPOLIS — The Cover Crop Premium Discount Program is available for the fourth year in a row, rewarding farmers who plant cover crops by providing a reduced premium on their crop insurance.

It was designed to promote planting additional acres of cover crops that are not covered by other state or federal incentives.

The program is implemented by the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, the Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency. Twenty-six out of the 92 counties in Indiana are eligible.

Qualifying counties in the project area include Bartholomew, Brown, Clark, Crawford, Daviess, Dearborn, Decatur, Floyd, Greene, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Jennings, Johnson, Lawrence, Martin, Monroe, Morgan, Ohio, Orange, Randolph, Ripley, Scott, Shelby, Switzerland and Washington.

“Cover crops are unmatched in the benefits they provide to soil structure, providing nutrients and needed ground cover to ensure vitality,” said Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Indiana’s secretary of agriculture and rural development.

“Implementing cover crops, however, can be expensive. So, I am excited this program will once again give farmers an opportunity to increase their cover cropped acreage, which will improve water quality and enhance the fertile soil in our state.”

Last year, the program included 117 farmers and more than 35,000 acres of cover crops on Indiana farmland in the watershed.

Farmers who plant cover crops on owned or rented acres will receive a $5 per acre crop insurance premium discount. Farmers who planted cover crops in the fall of 2023 are eligible to apply.

Why Cover Crops?

Cover cropping has many benefits including increased organic matter and improved soil biology, as well as better water infiltration and water-holding capacity. This practice also prevents nutrients and sediment from running off the farm, keeping them out of nearby waterbodies and streams.

Hoosier farmers planted 1.6 million acres of living covers in 2022 and, apart from corn and soybeans, are planted on more acres than any other commodity crop in Indiana.

“The continuation of this program for a fourth year is a direct result of the Indiana Legislature’s increased investment in the Clean Water Indiana program, which supports conservation efforts across the state,” said Larry Clemens, the Indiana state director of the Nature Conservancy.

ISDA Director Don Lamb, a second-generation farmer in Boone County, plants cover crops on his farm.

“Being a farmer who plants cover crops myself, I know how challenging it is,” Lamb said, “both in terms of upfront cost and the extra time related to implementing them.

“This is a tremendous program for Hoosier farmers looking for another incentive to plant cover crops, and I am so grateful this program is open to more counties and more farmers than ever before.”

Applications are due March 15, or when available funds are exhausted. Learn more and apply at isda.in.gov.