With more crop insurance policies for 2014 yet to be processed by the Risk Management Agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the total of those policies had already topped 1.2 million as of Oct. 27.

That's according to an update by the National Crop Insurance Services (NCIS), which is an industry trade group for the private insurance companies that cooperate with the subsidized federal program.

Those 1.2 million policies cover nearly 294 million acres of cropland with a potential of $109 billion in liabilities, the report indicated. Farmers will pay almost $3.8 billion in premiums for those policies while the federal subsidy for 2014 will provide between $8 and $9 billion, depending on the coverage levels chosen by the farmers.

NCIS points out that farmers can purchase crop insurance on 128 different crops, including almost all of the major commodities such as corn, soybeans, small grains, cotton, and rice along with apricots, bananas, blueberries, cherries, coffee, olives, and tangerines.

As indicated by the 90 percent of the nation's planted cropland, which was covered by 1.2 million crop insurance policies in 2013, this year's percentage is likely to match or exceed that, the NCIS report noted. It pointed out that farmers paid nearly $4.5 billion on premiums in 2013.

Source - http://www.wisfarmer.com/