H.R. 2435 — Save Our Small Farms Act of 2025

This section revises the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP)—which provides financial assistance to producers for eligible crop losses due to natural disasters when federal crop insurance is unavailable—by (1) expanding the program's purposes in subsection (a)(1)(C) to include listing additional crops with local average market prices on the national crop table, facilitating voluntary transitions to the whole-farm revenue protection plan under 7 U.S.C. 1522(c)(7), and establishing pilot projects to address emerging producer needs and support federal crop insurance policy development; (2) replacing subsection (b)(4) with a new streamlined application process that establishes reduced acreage reporting and biennial submissions for diverse, small-scale, and direct-to-consumer production systems; provides a voluntary revenue-based coverage option using IRS Schedule F (or successor) tax forms for historical revenue, subject to verification requests; creates an "on-ramp" revenue-based option with premium discounts of 25% in the first transition year (with 3-year commitment), 50% in the second year (with 2-year commitment), and 50% in the third year (with whole-farm plan purchase within 1 year), including revenue history sharing with the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation; and requires regulations within 90 days of enactment of the Save Our Small Farms Act of 2025; and (3) adding to subsection (c) a provision allowing producers of hand-harvested or rapidly deteriorating crops to notify the Secretary of losses 120 hours or more after occurrence and a process for crop appraisals when loss adjusters are unavailable within 72 hours.

This section revises the purposes of the whole farm revenue protection (WFRP) plan under the Federal Crop Insurance Act (7 U.S.C. 1522(c)) by adding promotion of participation by producers marketing direct-to-consumer, through intermediated local/regional sales, using farm identity-preserved marketing, or receiving education on direct market prices. The section further modifies requirements for the WFRP plan in paragraph (7) as follows: (1) removes the $1,500,000 liability limitation; (2) authorizes use of the plan in combination with (previously in lieu of) other policies; (3) requires (previously authorizes) approved insurance providers to offer coverage to producers using resource-conserving crop rotations (as defined in 16 U.S.C. 3839aa–24(d)(1)); (4) requires (previously authorizes) such providers to offer coverage to producers using organic practices; (5) updates review timelines to one year after enactment of the Save Our Small Farms Act of 2025 (from 18 months after the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018) and adds annual reviews of insurable revenue limitations for high-value products (e.g., animals, greenhouse/nursery, aquaculture) with congressional reports, plus a public Board report within 18 months; and (6) requires implementation within 18 months of enactment of specified modifications for specialty crops and diversified farms, including use of IRS Schedule F income for historical revenue (with limited verification), presumption of market price declines as due to natural causes, Risk Management Agency approval for revenue guarantee adjustments, raising the growth expansion limit to the lower of 100% of historic revenue or $500,000, detailed rejection notifications, expansion of diversification premium discounts to 10 commodities (expandable further), moderation of disaster years' impacts on historic revenue (including use of noninsured crop disaster assistance payments), use of prices/yields from other federal crop insurance policies, and acceptance of noninsured crop disaster assistance program records as documentation. (WFRP provides a single policy insuring revenue from all farm commodities, including specialty crops and livestock, to support diversified and beginning operations.)

This section amends the research and development authorities of the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) under the Federal Crop Insurance Act by adding a new paragraph (20) to section 522(c) that directs the FCIC to conduct research and development, or contract with qualified persons, for a single index insurance policy (i.e., area-based coverage using weather indices rather than individual farm assessments) to insure against agricultural income losses from covered weather conditions, including high winds, excessive moisture and flooding, extreme heat, abnormal freeze conditions, wildfire, hail, drought, and other severe conditions applicable to small-scale farmers (with indices prioritizing National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data). (1) The policy must be available nationwide, including all states, the District of Columbia, territories, and Indian Tribes, for any farm crop or commodity except timber, forest products, animals for sport or show, and pets; (2) allows policyholders to buy up to 150% or buy down to 5% (in 5% increments) of median county-level adjusted gross farm income, with buy-up limited to farms with at least three covered crops or commodities; (3) prioritizes features such as coverage of all covered crops/commodities and related on-farm activities (e.g., packing), payments within 30 days of a covered weather event in the county or adjacent county, seasonal coverage periods, special consideration for farms with less than $350,000 in adjusted gross income and underserved producers, and reduced paperwork; and (4) requires stakeholder consultations and a report to Congress within one year of enactment on results, challenges, and recommendations. This section also makes a technical amendment to section 531(a)(18) by updating a cross-reference from section 2501(e) to section 2501(a) of the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990.