Prevented Planting Payments for Irrigation Water Shortfalls

Current understanding

Prevented planting payments compensate producers when they are unable to plant an insured crop by the final planting date due to an insurable cause of loss. A pending bill would direct the Secretary of Agriculture to treat acreage left unplanted due to insufficient irrigation water as eligible for prevented planting payments, extending coverage that has historically centered on excess moisture and other weather-related causes. Status: introduced; no change yet to farmer eligibility, consumer prices, or program cost.

Evidence log

• 2026-07-09 — Supplemental Disaster Assistance Programs, Marketing Assistance Loans, and Sugar Provisions: cross-connection with obbba-disaster-marketing-loan-sugar-programs: Supplemental disaster assistance programs overlap with prevented planting policy as parallel channels for compensating producers unable to plant or harvest crops. (novelty: 2)
• 2026-06-23 — A bill to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to consider certain acreage not planted due to a lack of irrigation water to be eligible for prevented planting payments, and for other purposes.: cross-connection with sacramento-river-basin-water-security: Both address federal responses to irrigation water shortages affecting Western agriculture; prevented planting eligibility would provide a payment backstop when water security measures fail to deliver adequate supply. (novelty: 2)

Open questions

Related