Discount of Cover Crop Premium Available for Farmers in 50 Indiana Counties

Thursday, January 2, 2025 at 3:06 PM

By Travis Thayer @eagle993

The program does cover counties in southeastern Indiana.

Photo by the Indiana Department of Agriculture.

INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana State Department of Agriculture has implemented the Cover Crop Premium Discount Program for the fifth year in a row.

This program will reward farmers who plant cover crops by providing a reduced premium on their crop insurance. The discount program was designed to promote planting additional acres of cover crops that are not covered by other state or federal incentives.

This program is eligible for 50 out of the 92 counties in Indiana, including Dearborn, Decatur, Franklin, Jennings, Ohio, Ripley, and Switzerland counties.

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 2024 are eligible to apply.

Cover cropping has many benefits including increased organic matter, 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 a record 1.7 million acres of living covers in 2023 and, apart from corn and soybeans, are planted on more acres than any other commodity crop in Indiana.

Learn more at Discount of Cover Crop Premium available for farmers in 50 Indiana counties - State of Indiana.