Iowa Crop Insurance Discount Program

Crop insurance in an integral part of the farm safety net that provides protection for farmers after bad weather impacts their crops. Cover crops can help prevent erosion and improve water quality and soil health, among other benefits.

The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship and partners worked with the USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA) to establish a project aimed at expanding usage of cover crops in Iowa. 

Through this project IDALS will provide up to $5/acre for cover crops to eligible applicants. Funding will be provided through USDA-RMA as an additional insurance premium discount through normal crop insurance processes. The premium reduction will be available for fall-planted cover crops with a spring-planted cash crop. Some policies may be excluded, such as Whole-Farm Revenue Protection or those covered through written agreements. Participating farmers must follow all existing good farming practices required by their policy and work with their insurance agent to maintain eligibility.

Farmers are encouraged to wait to apply until their cover crop seeding has been completed. Please note that cover crop acres currently enrolled in state and/or federal programs are not eligible for this program.

Applicants must be located in Iowa, and plant an eligible cover crop on federally insured acreage.

A crop insurance premium discount, not a cash payment. "Eligible applicants will receive up to a $5/acre insurance premium discount on the following year's crop insurance invoice for every acre of cover crops enrolled and verified in the program." The benefit is delivered by USDA-RMA "as an additional insurance premium discount through normal crop insurance processes," applied against the acreage report you file for federal crop insurance — "Ensuring the field designations match is mandatory to receiving the premium discount."

Conditions:

• No per-farm acre cap is published — the discount is per verified acre.

• No stacking. "The program is offered for acres of cover crops installed outside of state/federal program incentives (WQI, IFIP, state cost share, EQIP, CSP, etc.)," and "Only acres in cover crops (absent other state/fed incentivized cover crops) will be eligible for the additional $5/acre premium reduction."

• Practice requirements. Fall-planted cover crop followed by a spring-planted insurable cash crop. "To ensure practice achieves the desired results, no full width tillage/termination of the cover crop in the fall is allowed. Management/termination must be done in the spring in accordance with the most recent version of the NRCS Cover Crop Termination Guidelines." Seeding should follow NRCS Conservation Practice Standard 340 (Cover Crops).

• Some policies are excluded, "such as Whole-Farm Revenue Protection or those covered through written agreements." You must keep following the good farming practices your policy requires and coordinate with your insurance agent.

• Records and access. "Applicants must maintain documentation cover crops have been seeded (seed bills, etc.)" and grant IDALS "ingress/egress to the property enrolled if necessary to verify cover crop establishment."

• Sign-up needs your crop insurance policy number(s), acres seeded, and farm/tract/CLU-field numbers — reference your FSA-578.

Status: "Signup is closed. Signup will open again in December 2026." The prior round covered cover crops seeded in fall 2025 for a 2026 insurable crop, with applications due January 23, 2026.

Apply online at this online portal. Account creation is required.

• Fact Sheet

• FAQ