Title VI — Crop Insurance

“(18) Whole farm diversified risk management insurance plan

“(A) In general—The Corporation shall conduct activities or enter into contracts to carry out research and development to develop a whole farm risk management insurance plan, with a liability limitation of $1,500,000, that allows a diversified crop or livestock producer the option to qualify for an indemnity if actual gross farm revenue is below 85 percent of the average gross farm revenue or the expected gross farm revenue that can reasonably be expected of the producer, as determined by the Corporation.

“(B) Eligible producers—The Corporation shall permit producers (including direct-to-consumer marketers, and producers servicing local and regional and farm identity-preserved markets) who produce multiple agricultural commodities, including specialty crops, industrial crops, livestock, and aquaculture products, to participate in the plan in lieu of any other plan under this subtitle.

“(C) Diversification—The Corporation may provide diversification-based additional coverage payment rates, premium discounts, or other enhanced benefits in recognition of the risk management benefits of crop and livestock diversification strategies for producers that grow multiple crops or that may have income from the production of livestock that uses a crop grown on the farm.

“(D) Market readiness—The Corporation may include coverage for the value of any packing, packaging, or any other similar on-farm activity the Corporation determines to be the minimum required in order to remove the commodity from the field.

“(E) Report—Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this paragraph, the Corporation shall submit to the Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate a report that describes the results and feasibility of the research and development conducted under this paragraph, including an analysis of potential adverse market distortions.”

“(E) Approval

“(i) In general—The Board may approve up to 50 percent of the projected total research and development costs to be paid in advance to an applicant, in accordance with the procedures developed by the Board for the making of the payments, if, after consideration of the reviewer reports described in subparagraph (D) and such other information as the Board determines appropriate, the Board determines that—

“(I) the concept, in good faith, will likely result in a viable and marketable policy consistent with section 508(h);

“(II) at the sole discretion of the Board, the concept, if developed into a policy and approved by the Board, would provide crop insurance coverage—

“(aa) in a significantly improved form or that addresses a unique need of agricultural producers;

“(bb) to a crop or region not traditionally served by the Federal crop insurance program; or

“(cc) in a form that addresses a recognized flaw or problem in the program;

“(III) the applicant agrees to provide such reports as the Corporation determines are necessary to monitor the development effort;

“(IV) the proposed budget and timetable are reasonable, as determined by the Board; and

“(V) the concept proposal meets any other requirements that the Board determines appropriate.

“(ii) Waiver—The Board may waive the 50-percent limitation and, upon request of the submitter after the submitter has begun research and development activities, the Board may approve an additional 25 percent advance payment to the submitter for research and development costs, if, at the sole discretion of the Board, the Board determines that—

“(I) the intended policy or plan of insurance developed by the submitter will provide coverage for a region or crop that is underserved by the Federal crop insurance program, including specialty crops; and

“(II) the submitter is making satisfactory progress towards developing a viable and marketable policy or plan of insurance consistent with section 508(h).”

“(b) Agricultural management assistance, risk management education, and organic certification cost share assistance

“(1) Authority for provision of assistance—The Secretary shall provide assistance under this section as follows:

“(A) Provision of organic certification cost share assistance pursuant to section 10606 of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (7 U.S.C. 6523).

“(B) Activities to support risk management education and community outreach partnerships pursuant to section 522(d), including—

“(i) entering into futures or hedging;

“(ii) entering into agricultural trade options as a hedging transaction to reduce production, price, or revenue risk; or

“(iii) conducting any other activity relating to an activity described in clause (i) or (ii), including farm financial benchmarking, as determined by the Secretary.

“(C) Provision of agricultural management assistance grants to producers in States in which there has been traditionally, and continues to be, a low level of Federal crop insurance participation and availability, and producers underserved by the Federal crop insurance program, as determined by the Secretary, for the purposes of—

“(i) constructing or improving—

“(I) watershed management structures; or

“(II) irrigation structures;

“(ii) planting trees to form windbreaks or to improve water quality; and

“(iii) mitigating financial risk through production or marketing diversification or resource conservation practices, including—

“(I) soil erosion control;

“(II) integrated pest management;

“(III) organic farming; or

“(IV) to develop and implement a plan to create marketing opportunities for the producer, including through value-added processing.

“(2) Payment limitation—The total amount of payments made to a person (as defined in section 1001(5) of the Food Security Act (7 U.S.C. 1308(5))) (as in existence before the amendment made by section 1603(b) of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (Public Law 110–246; 122 Stat. 1730)) under paragraph (1) for any year may not exceed $50,000.

“(3) Funding

“(A) In general—The Secretary shall carry out this subsection through the Commodity Credit Corporation.

“(B) Funding—The Commodity Credit Corporation shall make available to carry out this subsection—

“(i) $15,000,000 for fiscal year 2013; and

“(ii) $23,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2014 through 2018.

“(C) Distribution of funds—Of the amount made available to carry out this subsection for a fiscal year, the Commodity Credit Corporation shall use not less than—

“(i) 50 percent to carry out paragraph (1)(A);

“(ii) 26 percent to carry out paragraph (1)(B); and

“(iii) 24 percent to carry out paragraph (1)(C).”