Transitional and Organic Grower Assistance Program (TOGA)

Are you a producer transitioning to organic or maybe you already grow a certified organic grain or feed crop? Are those crops covered with Federal crop insurance? If the answer is yes, you can now get premium assistance from the USDA for the 2023 reinsurance year through the Transitional and Organic Grower Assistance (TOGA) Program. It’s offered by the USDA’s Risk Management Agency, and it can reduce your overall crop insurance premium bills, and help you continue to use an organic agricultural system.

TOGA is available nationwide and is part of USDA’s Organic Transition Initiative, a group of programs that build more and better markets for American growers and consumers, improve the resilience of the food supply chain, and address the economic challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic.

You will automatically receive the premium assistance on your billing statements for the 2023 reinsurance year, which covers applicable policies with sales closing dates from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023.

Since there is no enrollment paperwork, the premium assistance will automatically apply to those eligible insurance policies with July or August sales closing dates that have passed.

Eligible organic grain and feed crops are alfalfa seed, barley, buckwheat, canola, corn, cultivated wild rice, dry beans, dry peas, flax, forage production, forage seeding, fresh market sweet corn, grain sorghum, hybrid corn seed, hybrid popcorn seed, hybrid sorghum seed, hybrid sweet corn seed, millet, oats, crops insured under the Pasture, Rangeland, and Forage policy, peanuts, popcorn, rice, rye, safflower, sesame, silage sorghum, soybeans, sunflowers, sweet corn, triticale, and wheat.

If a producer purchases an underlying policy and an additional endorsement, RMA’s TOGA premium subsidy only applies to the underlying policy. Therefore, RMA’s TOGA subsidy will not apply on premium owed on:

• Enhanced Coverage Option (ECO);

• Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO);

• Hurricane Insurance Protection - Wind Index (HIP-WI); or

• Post-Application Coverage Endorsement (PACE).

• For Margin Protection (MP) and Stacked Income Protection (STAX), the subsidy will apply if purchased as a stand-alone policy, but not if purchased as an endorsement to other underlying coverage.

Producers will automatically receive the premium assistance on the premium billing statements for the 2023 reinsurance year, which covers applicable policies with sales closing dates from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023.

If you have any questions, contact your crop insurance agent or local FSA office.

• August 22, 2022 News Release: USDA Offers Greater Protection and Flexibility With RMA’s Transitional and Organic Grower Assistance

• Transitional and Organic Grower Assistance Notice of Funding Availability

• Transitional and Organic Grower Assistance Fact Sheet

• Transitional and Organic Grower Assistance Program FAQs

• USDA’s Organic Transition Initiative

• RMA Organic Crops Page