With the March 17 deadline approaching for farmers to purchase crop insurance for spring seeded crops like corn and soybeans, National Crop Insurance Services (NCIS) released results of a near-record year in 2024.
Farmers and ranchers spent more than $6 billion from their own pockets in 2024 to purchase 2.4 million crop insurance policies, which provided $159 billion in protection against weather and market losses, according to NCIS.
Nationwide, 543,753,123 acres of farm and ranchland were covered in 2024 – or nine out of 10 eligible acres. That’s up dramatically from just five years ago, when fewer than 379 million acres were insured.
The states with the most coverage included Iowa (22.4 million acres, $16.3 billion liability protection); Illinois (20.1 million acres, $14.5 billion liability protection); California (17.1 million acres, $12.5 billion liability protection); Minnesota (18.1 million acres, $10.9 billion liability protection); and Nebraska (24.7 million acres, $10.4 billion liability protection).
“Thankfully our farmers and ranchers had high levels of protection in a 2024,” said NCIS President Tom Zacharias. “For example, crop insurers delivered more than $800 million in indemnity payments within two weeks of last year’s deadly hurricanes, making it among the first meaningful money to arrive after Milton and Helene.”
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