California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura encourages avocado growers to participate in a new United States Department of Agriculture crop insurance program. The USDA’s Risk Management Agency has developed a new California Avocado Actual Production History (APH) pilot crop insurance program, effective for the 2010 crop year.

This new APH crop insurance program replaces the California Avocado Revenue pilot program that has been in place since 1998. The APH program will offer fruit-yield-only coverage for producers of the Hass variety of avocados, the dominant type grown in pilot areas.

The California Avocado APH pilot program will be offered in six California counties: San Diego, Riverside, Orange, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. The sales closing date for the 2010 crop year is Nov. 30, 2008. The insurance period covers the avocado bloom that occurs in the spring of 2009 for the 2010 crop harvest.

Avocado growers interested in applying or obtaining further information should contact the USDA Risk Management Agency’s Davis Regional Office at (530) 792-5870.