The Anatomy of Crop Insurance Policies and What U.S.Producers Chose, 2025

➩ Enterprise Units carry most insured acres and liability, and they cost producers less. Premium data show why: Enterprise Units carry higher subsidy rates and much lower producer-paid premiums per acre than Optional or Basic Units.

➩ Revenue plans account for most insured dollars, while area and index plans cover more acres. Individual revenue products hold the largest liability share, led by corn, soybeans, wheat, and cotton. The Pasture, Rangeland, and Forage Rainfall Index covers many acres at low value per acre, so its liability share trails its acreage.

➩ Coverage has shifted upward, with acres and liability concentrated at 70 percent and above. Catastrophic and the lowest buy-up bands have receded. Because the highest band includes many area- and index-based plans, chiefly the Rainfall Index, bands are best read within each plan family, not as one overall measure.

➩ A few options make up most of the basic policy choices. Of eight categories, yield-history adjustments (Yield Adjustment, Yield Cup, Trend Adjustment, and Yield Exclusion) cover the most acres, mainly in major row crops. The largest outside that group, the prevented-planting buy-up, is being phased out under the Expanding Access to Risk Protection rule in 2026 and 2027, though USDA committed in July 2026 to restore it. Because options combine, these shares show the mix chosen, not participation.

➩ Liability is based on the producer’s share of interest, not just the number of acres. It reflects the producer’s ownership in the crop, not the landlord’s; producers hold about 95 percent program-wide, lowest in Corn Belt and Plains row crops and close to 100 percent for most fruit, nut, forage, and vegetable crops.

➩ The shrinking use of written agreements signals the program’s widening reach. These negotiated policies, used where the standard documents do not fit, cover a small and falling share of insured acres. The decline reflects not a retreat from these crops but their steady move into the standard program.

➩ Supplemental coverage is a small but rapidly growing part of the program. It covers a small share of insured acres, mostly in row-crop regions; enrollment jumped in 2025 after subsidy increases, and hurricane-wind coverage concentrates in coastal fruit and nut states.

Recommended Citation: Francis Tsiboe (2026). The Anatomy of Crop Insurance Policies and What U.S. Producers Chose, 2025. ARPC Report 2026–06. Agricultural Risk Policy Center, North Dakota State University.