Senator John Hoeven says he’s been working on getting legislation to protect upstream farmer’s federal crop insurance coverage in the next Farm Bill.
"The concept, is we gotta work with everybody. Nothing's perfect, but we gotta do our best to be fair to everybody."
The two-part plan is aimed at protecting farmers impacted by the operation of the Red River Diversion during a major flood. Right now, federal crop insurance will not cover losses by those high water levels because it was caused by a man-made event.
The first part of the plan excludes affected years from the producers’ Actual Production History, or APH. APH is used to determine crop insurance premiums and payouts.
The second part is a funding mechanism to make those farmers whole in the event of a flood - $100 million from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
"It's important because when there are flood impacts and the diversion kicks in, then water will be backed up on that farmland. That will impact crops. So what the Diversion Authority is doing is taking $25 million of that $100 million to cover those losses, which they will then pay to the farmers whose crops are impacted by that flooding. Because, crop insurance won't kick in."
Fargo Mayor Josh Boschee says locally, two committees are also assigned to landowners’ issues. One is the crop loss program – which includes a team that matches the federal dollars and provides coverage for those crops. The second is the land management committee.
"The debris removal, restoration and subcommittee, which, this will ensure that if something happens - we are making plans now, that we're able to quickly remove debris, make sure that your land that's been impacted is able to be cleared as quickly as possible, and have plans and contingencies in place - so we're not figuring it out as we go."
Boschee says he looks forward to further opportunities to work with landowners on solutions going forward.
The Fargo Moorhead Diversion is scheduled to be ready for operation, if needed, next spring.
This legislation is currently in the Senate version of the Farm Bill, but not the House version. Hoeven says while there still remains work do be done across the aisle to advance the bill, he is optimistic it will get done.
