SD Farm Bureau Applauds Biotech Endorsement Program

South Dakota has recently been added to the list of states eligible to participate in the Federal Crop Insurance Risk Management Biotechnology Endorsement pilot program.  The result is that corn growers in South Dakota will be eligible for a premium rate reduction for planting certain qualifying corn hybrids. 

The Biotechnology Yield Endorsement was started as a pilot program in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Minnesota.  The SD Farm Bureau last April requested the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation to expand the program to other corn growing areas, including South Dakota. 

“South Dakota ranks among the top in the nation for percentage of producers to adopt biotechnology, for both corn and soybeans,” said Scott VanderWal, a Volga farmer and president of the SD Farm Bureau.  “We believe that extending the BYE program will allow currently-insured growers to expand their coverage and could also prompt uninsured growers to begin participating in the program.  Increased use of risk-management tools, such as crop insurance and lower-risk technologies, serve producers as well as consumers.”

            He adds, “Appropriate risk-management tools are becoming increasingly more important as producers face such variables as rising land costs, greater input costs, and skyrocketing energy expenses.  We welcome the opportunity for producers to participate in the BYE as an added risk management tool.”

            Under the resolutions approved by the FCIC Board, the following seed technologies and states will be eligible for coverage in South Dakota beginning with the 2009 crop year:

• Monsanto YieldGard® Plus with Roundup Ready® Corn 2, YieldGard® VT Triple, and YieldGard® VT Triple PRO hybrids for non-irrigated corn for grain.
• Pioneer and Dow AgroSciences Herculex® Xtra and Herculex® Xtra RR2® hybrids for non-irrigated corn for grain.
• Syngenta Agrisure® CB and RW stacked and Agrisure® 3000GT hybrids for non-irrigated corn for grain.

The pilot program is an endorsement to the Coarse Grains Crop Provisions, the Crop Revenue Coverage Corn Provisions, and the Revenue Assurance Corn Provisions. Insured producers will be required to purchase a buy-up level of coverage and plant at least 75 percent of their insured corn acres in a unit to a qualifying corn hybrid. RMA will release the biotechnology endorsement and related materials upon completion later this fall, and will include revisions for failure to comply that were viewed by some as too onerous.

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