South Dakota has recently been added to the list of states eligible to participate in the Federal Crop Insurance Risk Management Biotechnology Yield Endorsement (BYE) pilot program.

The result is that the state's corn growers will be eligible for a premium rate reduction for planting certain qualifying corn hybrids.

Under the resolutions approved by the FCIC Board, the following seed technologies and states will be eligible for coverage in South Dakota beginning with the 2009 crop year:

• Monsanto YieldGard Plus with Roundup Ready Corn 2, YieldGard VT Triple, and YieldGard VT Triple PRO hybrids for non-irrigated corn for grain.
• Pioneer and Dow AgroSciences Herculex Xtra and Herculex Xtra RR2 hybrids for non-irrigated corn for grain.
• Syngenta Agrisure CB and RW stacked and Agrisure 3000GT hybrids for non-irrigated corn for grain.

The pilot program is an endorsement to the Coarse Grains Crop Provisions, the Crop Revenue Coverage Corn Provisions, and the Revenue Assurance Corn Provisions.

Insured producers will be required to purchase a buy-up level of coverage and plant at least 75% of their insured corn acres in a unit to a qualifying corn hybrid.

The Risk Management Agency is expected to release the biotechnology endorsement and related materials upon completion later this fall, and will include revisions for failure to comply that were viewed by some as too onerous.

"We believe that extending the BYE program will allow currently-insured growers to expand their coverage and could also prompt uninsured growers to begin participating in the program," says Scott VanderWal, a Volga farmer and president of the South Dakota Farm Bureau, which lobbied make the pilot program available in South Dakota.

"Appropriate risk-management tools are becoming increasingly more important as producers face such variables as rising land costs, greater input costs, and skyrocketing energy expenses," he says. "We welcome the opportunity for producers to participate in the BYE as an added risk management tool."

Source: South Dakota Farm Bureau