By Kayla Huffmaster, Crop Insurance Agent, Insure.ag
One of the best-kept secrets in crop insurance is that “not available in your county” doesn’t always mean “not insurable.”
Sometimes, it’s simply the beginning of a different conversation.
That’s where a Written Agreement can come into play. It’s an established part of the crop insurance program that can provide a path to coverage when a crop or practice isn’t normally available in a particular county.
Here in Georgia, where growers are constantly diversifying and trying new crops in new areas, Written Agreements are a tool I turn to often.
So, if you’re growing something a little outside the box or even a familiar crop in a county where it isn’t commonly produced, don’t assume you’re out of options just because coverage isn’t listed.
It’s worth asking the question.
What is a written agreement?
A written agreement is an individual agreement between you, your insurance provider, and USDA’s Risk Management Agency that extends crop insurance to a situation the standard policy documents don’t already cover.
The standard system works off actuarial documents, which list, county by county, which crops are insurable, at what rates, with what practices and types. If your crop, your county, your practice or your land isn’t in those documents, the standard answer is no coverage. A written agreement is how that no becomes a maybe.
It is not a favor and it is not an exception granted informally. It’s a documented process with forms, deadlines and criteria.
When do you need one?
The common situations for specialty crop growers:
Your crop isn’t listed for your county. The crop is insurable elsewhere but the actuarial documents don’t cover it where you farm.
Your land is in an unrated area. The county is covered but your specific ground has no rating.
You have no production history. A new planting, a new variety, or a block you’ve only just taken over.
Your practice or type isn’t listed. You’re farming it in a way, or growing a type, the documents don’t contemplate.
Any of these can be workable. None of them are automatic.
How do I insure a variety with no yield history?
If you’re planting a new or club variety, one of the first questions is usually, “Can I insure it?”
The answer really depends on what kind of production history we have to work with.
Crop insurance uses your production history to help determine your guarantee. If there’s no history for that variety on that ground, we may need to look at a Written Agreement and see if there’s something comparable we can use, like a similar variety grown on similar ground and under similar management.
The biggest thing I tell growers is: talk to me before you plant it.
The earlier we look at your options, the better. And keep good production records from the beginning, because the history you’re building today can help determine the coverage you have down the road.
What are the deadlines?
This is where most written agreement requests fail, and here’s the part nobody tells you: there isn’t one deadline. It depends on what kind of request is specific to your operation.
Most written agreement requests are due by the sales closing date for your crop. That’s the safe date to plan around.
A few specific types run later, to the acreage reporting date. These include requests to insure unrated land, an unlisted practice or type, and certain unit structure requests.
And the biggest one runs on its own clock: if your crop has no actuarial documents in your county at all, the initial request is generally due by the cancellation date in the crop provisions, with renewals in later years by the sales closing date.
Every one of those dates varies by crop and county, and they are set by RMA, not by your agent. The practical rule: treat the sales closing date as your working deadline, confirm your specific request type with your agent well before it, and never assume this year’s deadline matches the one you remember from when you first applied.
What do you have to submit?
RMA expects a real file. Typically:
- A completed Request for Actuarial Change form
- Your completed Actual Production History for the current year, for policies that require APH
- Legal land description, where available, plus your FSA farm, tract and field numbers
- FSA aerial photography or acceptable GIS or GPS maps that are legible and clearly delineate field boundaries
- NRCS soil survey maps, if the RMA regional office requires them
- For perennial crops, an acceptable inspection report and pre-acceptance worksheet
The maps requirement is the one that quietly sinks applications. “Legible and clearly delineate” is doing real work in that sentence. A screenshot with a hand-drawn circle is not a map.
Will it be approved?
Not necessarily. RMA reviews each request, can come back asking for more information, and submitting a request does not guarantee insurance.
That’s worth saying plainly, because a written agreement is work. You are assembling documentation for a decision someone else makes. What improves your odds is a complete, clean, early submission, and an accurate description of what you’re actually doing on the ground.
What hurts your odds is submitting three days before the deadline with maps that need chasing.
Who writes written agreements for specialty crops?
Technically, any licensed crop insurance agent can submit a Written Agreement request. But if your operation needs one, it’s worth working with an agent or agency that is familiar with the process and works regularly with specialty crops.
Written Agreements can involve additional research, documentation, and coordination, and every situation can look a little different. Having experience with specialty crops helps when it comes to knowing what questions to ask, what information may be needed, and how to put together a strong request.
That’s one of the reasons I enjoy what I do at Insure.ag. Specialty crops are a major part of what we do, and I have an experienced team behind me when I’m working through these more complex situations.
I’m still the person working directly with my growers while learning their operation, understanding what they’re trying to accomplish, and helping them navigate their coverage, but I’m also able to lean on the knowledge and experience of our specialty crop team.
So yes, any agent can submit a Written Agreement. But when your crop or operation falls outside the standard box, it can be valuable to work with people who spend a lot of time working outside that box.
What to do next
If you’ve been told a crop isn’t insurable in your county, treat that as the beginning of the conversation.
Find your crop’s sales closing date and acreage reporting date, since those set your real timeline. Pull together your FSA maps and land descriptions now, because they take longer than you expect. And if you’re planning a new variety or a new block, ask the question before it goes in the ground.
If you want a second opinion on whether something is workable, that’s a phone call, not a project.
Kayla Huffmaster is a Crop Insurance Agent at Insure.ag, based in Reynolds, Georgia. She brings over four years of experience in the crop insurance industry, spanning agency operations and underwriting, which gives her a well-rounded understanding of how coverage is built, managed, and made to work for growers. Experience in row crop farming, Kayla knows firsthand the challenges and decisions producers face throughout the growing season. That grounded perspective drives her commitment to helping farmers protect their operations through personalized risk management and the kind of exceptional, hands-on service that keeps their needs at the center.
General information only, not a substitute for your policy documents or guidance from your provider. Requirements, deadlines and actuarial documents vary by crop, county and crop year. Source: USDA RMA Written Agreement Handbook (FCIC-24020). Talk to your agent about your operation.