Bill > S801

This bill, the Prairie Protection Act of 2013, amends the Federal Crop Insurance Act and the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 to reduce crop insurance and disaster assistance for crops grown on native sod acreage that has been converted to cropland. Specifically, for the first four years after converting native sod to cropland, producers will receive only 65 percent of the applicable transitional yield and their crop insurance premium subsidy will be reduced by 50 percentage points. This means that farmers converting grasslands to farmland will receive less financial support from the government during this initial period, aiming to discourage the conversion of native sod, which is ecologically valuable. The bill also requires the Secretary of Agriculture to provide reports on cropland acreage changes and the conversion of native sod to other uses.