(NAFB) – Organic and aquaculture producers can soon benefit from updates to the Department of Agriculture’s Whole-Farm Revenue Protection plan.

USDA’s Risk Management Agency announced Wednesday it is revising the plan of insurance to make it more flexible and accessible to producers beginning in crop year 2022.

RMA Acting Administrator Richard Flournoy says the changes to the program “will make it a better risk management tool for producers.”

Changes to the program include increasing expansion limits for organic producers to the higher of $500,000 or 35 percent, increasing the limit of insurance for aquaculture producers to $8.5 million, and allowing a producer to report acreage as certified organic, or as acreage in transition to organic, when the producer has requested an organic certification by the acreage reporting date.

Meanwhile, RMA revised dates for the Pasture, Rangeland and Forage and Apiculture Insurance programs earlier in the week. Farmers now will have until December 1 to make coverage decisions and complete reporting activities.