ECO Basics
Top-Layer Crop Insurance Program
New for 2025: Premium is 65% Subsidized
What It Is
ECO is a supplemental insurance that offers farmers an extra layer of protection against crop losses. This new endorsement provides insurance coverage to a previous gap on the top end of county revenue losses that can’t be covered any other way in the federal program. ECO is an area-based plan.
Area-Based Plan
The area-based plan looks at the average yield or revenue for the county rather than the individual far. If the county yield or revenue for that area falls below the averages, ECO provides a loss claim to all insured farmers within that county, regardless of their individual farm’s performance.
Coverage Bands
Crop Insurance can be thought of in tiers. The base tier is the Multiple Peril Crop Insurance (MPCI). This tier has the choice of coverages such as Revenue Protection and Yield Protection. The next tier will cover up where the MPCI coverage ends up to 86% of losses.
Enhanced Coverage Option covers 86% to either 90% or 95% of county revenue, depending on which level of coverage the grower selects.
Extra Layer Insurance
Provides the highest level of insurance in the federal program 90/95%- Your choice of 90% or 95% coverage levels
Area-Based Coverage
Coverage is based on the county averages and production not on the individual operation
Increased Loss Probability
At 90-95% levels, it does not take much drop in yield or price to cause a loss payment
Subsidized
A large portion of the premium, 65%, is subsided reducing cost to the farmer
Stackable Coverage
ECO is designed to work in conjunction with MPCI and other programs
Must be Bought Before 3/15
The Sales Close Date is the same as the base MPCI coverage
Get a Personalized ECO Quote Today
Crops Availability
When a Loss Payment Owed
A loss payment for ECO will be owed when the actual county revenue falls below the county revenue guarantee. This guarantee is determined by the expected county yield and the expected commodity price. Either price, yield or a combination of both can cause enough of a revenue drop in the county to cause a loss payment to be owed. With ECO protecting the top end of revenue, ECO will have a loss payment before SCO and a standalone MPCI policy.
Harvest Prices Drop Example
A drop from the Spring Projected can cause a loss payment to be owed.
County Yield Drop Example
A drop from the Spring expected county yields can cause a loss payment to be owed.
Shallow Price Loss
With MPCI, to have a loss claim, it takes a significant drop in commodity price or farm yield. With ECO, it does not require either price or yield to drop very much to be owed a loss payment.
ECO VS SCO
Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) is a very similar product to ECO; both providing a higher level of coverage than MPCI. SCO’s limit is 86% compared to ECO’s 95%. Both are area-based plans but SCO’s loss payment is based on combination of individual farm and county yield/revenues. These products can’t be bought together, and they change what other programs a farmer is eligible for.
County Specific Analysis
and Personalized Quote
PRM take a deeper dive into ECO more than any other company. With PRM’s ECO analysis tools, PRM will do a county specific analysis to examine what opportunities there are for a farmer in the area. Using historical yield tracking, the analysis will show where yields are too high or too low compared to expected results.
Personalized Program
Comparison Analysis
Precision Risk Management takes the comprehensive look at your risk management plan to identify the best USDA and FSA programs. PRM will look at your specific operation and county to identify the largest revenue protection and the trigger points for each of the different programs.
Why Buy ECO
Commodity Price Drops
If Spring base prices are set at a high level, it created a risk price will fall during harvest. ECO will lock in a higher revenue level. If prices fall significantly, the loss payout will also be significant.
County Issues
Even if a grower feels great about their operation, they may not be optimistic about their neighbors. Conditions and adverse weather in the county could create a loss situation even if the individual grower doesn’t have issues.
Leverage During Marketing
A grower can use the upper-end guaranteed county revenue in a marketing strategy. Some growers may pursue a more aggressive strategy if they have a backfill of ECO guarantee revenue levels.
Benefit Outweighs Premium Costs
In some counties, the subsidized premium paid on the front end may be significantly outweighed by the loss claim if prices or yields drop. High commodity prices bring a lot of opportunity for price volatility.
Historical Projected Prices and Harvest Prices
