USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) approved a one-of-a-kind pilot crop insurance program for corn this week that, for those eligible, will reduce their crop insurance premiums by as much as 20 percent to 24 percent. But it may be awhile before growers can actually take advantage of the new program.

Under the pilot program, known as the Biotech Yield Endorsement (BYE), corn growers in Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois will be eligible for the premium discount if they plant specific biotech hybrids that contain specific traits developed by Monsanto. That’s according to Brent Doane, Director of External Affairs for RMA.

“In essence, what this policy does is it allows a producer to receive a premium rate discount on non-irrigated corn that is planted using certain hybrid varieties, in this case the Monsanto triple-stack varieties,” Doane explained.

“Producers that plant between 75 percent and 80 percent of their field to this variety would qualify for a discount that could be up to 20 percent of their premium that they pay.”

And according to Doane, the new pilot crop insurance for biotech corn is truly revolutionary. Indeed, he suggested the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation’s (FCIC) board of directors hadn’t previously considered anything like it.

“This is something unique,” said Doane. “The board has never dealt with something like this before in terms of technology, and, yes, it is the first time we’ve been able to offer a discount for producers that use a particular type of technology.”

Getting the FCIC to approve the pilot crop insurance program wasn’t easy. Tim Hennessy, Monsanto’s New Business Development Manager, told Brownfield the process proved to be an exceptionally complex, multi-year process.

“Monsanto has worked approximately two years on this,” Hennessy said. “And certainly it requires a substantial amount of data – a substantial number of years of data – as well as a whole lot of background information and analysis.”

So why take on the effort? According to Hennessy, Monsanto’s seed corn end users drove the move.

“Many growers recognized that they’re buying crop insurance to also reduce risk, and have often asked, ‘If I’m planting the triple-stack corn and reducing risk, does that tie into crop insurance?’” said Hennessy. “So Monsanto took it upon themselves to begin to investigate the opportunity.”

National Corn Growers Association CEO Rick Tolman hailed USDA’s approval of BYE. He told Brownfield the crop insurance discount essentially serves as a third-party endorsement of the bottom-line value of biotechnology in crop production.

“It’s coming from an insurance company, from the government, and reflected in the marketplace, where there are tangible market benefits for using biotech products, the traits of biotech,” Tolman said. “They clearly reduce risk for farmers.”

But the RMA’s Doane noted BYE does not represent a blanket endorsement of all biotech corn technology. He pointed out that not just any triplestack corn hybrid will make growers eligible for the crop insurance discount.

“It is only for those using the Monsanto varieties of the YieldGard®, YieldGard Plus and the Roundup Ready® combination,” Doane said.

And BYE may not be available for the 2008 growing season. Doane said it all depends on how quickly RMA can fit the new program into RMA’s existing computer systems, a process that could delay implementation until 2009. “That determination of whether the program will be available for 2008 or 2009 will be dependent largely on the availability of IT resources and staff resources at the Risk Management Agency,” Doane said.