The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently implemented provisions of the 2014 Farm Bill to expand insurance coverage options for farmers and ranchers. The new Supplemental Coverage Option ("SCO") is designed to help protect farmers from yield and market volatility. This option will be available for cotton, corn, grain sorghum, rice, soybeans, spring barley, spring wheat, and winter wheat in select counties for the 2015 crop year.

The SCO is a county-level program administered by the Risk Management Agency ("RMA") that is intended to supplement an underlying crop insurance policy by covering a portion of losses not covered by the underlying policy. However, producers who elect to participate in Agricultural Risk Coverage ("ARC"), offered by the Farm Service Agency ("FSA"), are not eligible for the SCO for the crop and farm participating in ARC.  

The SCO comes as a part of the 2014 Farm Bill, which strengthens and expands crop insurance by providing more risk management options for farmers and ranchers and making crop insurance more affordable to beginning farmers.