Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) will open the third year of the Fall Covers for Spring Savings Program on December 15. Applications will be available at https://www2.illinois.gov/sites/agr/Pages/default.aspx beginning at 8am. on December 15.
Funding of eligible acreage will be on a first come, first serve basis. Due to the program’s success 100,000 acres are available for 2022, up from 50,000 the previous growing season. In 2020, the 50,000-acreage allotment was met in 12 hours and a total of 185,000 acres were requested by the time the application period ended.
The program is applicable for acreage in Illinois planted to cover crops in the fall of 2021 that will be planted to an insurable crop in 2022. Eligible applicants receive a premium discount of $5 per acre on the following year’s crop insurance for every acre of cover crop enrolled and verified in the program.
Applicants will be required to certify that their cover crops are approved through their local Farm Service Agency office before applying. Applicants will also need their current FSA-578 and federal crop insurance policy number(s) for the 2022 application process.
The discount program was designed to promote additional acres of cover crops that are not covered by other state or federal incentives. IDOA will use a combination of tools to verify that acres applied for through this program are planted in cover crops. The program is only applicable for those with coverage through the United States Department of Agriculture Risk Management Agency (USDA-RMA) crop insurance program. Confirmed applications will be forwarded to the USDA-RMA for processing and for application of premium discounts to 2022 crop insurance
invoices.
Applications will be available until January 15, 2022 on the Illinois Department of Agriculture website. Further information can be obtained by contacting the IDOA at (217) 782-6297.