Nursery Value Select

NVS is available in all states and counties.

NVS is an inventory-based nursery crop insurance program with the following benefits:

• Simple application and annual policy renewal process;
• Ability to select the dollar amount of coverage that best fits your risk management needs;
• Coverage tailored to your individual practice (container or field grown); and for additional levels of coverage, your choice from any of 10 potential plant categories;
• Simple loss adjustment process that determines plant values by placing greater reliance upon your actual sales receipts, along with your participation in determining a damaged plant’s ability to be marketed or rehabilitated;
• Plant category naming conventions familiar to the nursery industry;
• Tailored program dates, including two sales closing dates of May 1 (Gulf Coast, East Coast, and West Virginia) or September 1 (all other states) that are better suited to the agronomic and industry nursery management practices in different regions across the country;
• An Occurrence Loss Option (OLO) moving the deductible from a unit level to a plant level for an additional premium (only available for buy-up policies); and
• A Peak Endorsement Pilot, which allows producers to increase coverage during a designated peak period when the inventory value may be higher than the selected value.

Note: Nursery FG&C will no longer be available following the 2025 crop year.

In order to be eligible for NVS coverage, you must be a wholesale nursery that derives at least 40 percent of its gross income from the wholesale marketing of plants to:

• Retailers who resell to end users;
• Landscape contractors;
• Government entities or organizations; and/or
• Commercial fruit producers.

You must also have a wholesale catalog that is provided to customers and used in the sale of the plants.

Yes.  You may insure a specific plant under an NVS policy and under a CE policy, unless restricted by the Special Provisions.  However, the policies must be insured with the same approved insurance provider and you cannot receive an indemnity on the same specific plant under more than one policy.

You must submit the following:

• Crop insurance application;
• Nursery Value Report (NVR) for each insured practice (field grown and/or container grown).
  • The NVR is a document that represents your declaration of the insurance choices you elect.
• Monthly Unit Value Report (MUVP) for each insured basic unit.
  • The MUVP is a document that represents your declaration for each basic unit by:
    • Month, from the first month to the last month of the insurance period; and
    • The maximum value of all specific plants in each insured plant category that you expect to have in your nursery (during each month of the insurance period.)
• Submit two printed copies or one electronic copy of the most recent catalog or price list, by season or plant category, if appropriate.

All documents must be acceptable and must be submitted on or before the sales closing date for insurance to attach on the first day of the insurance period.

For insurance to attach on the start date of the crop year, all documentation must be submitted on or before the sales closing date.

• For insurance to attach on the start date of the crop year, all documentation must be submitted on or before the sales closing date. If you’re applying for coverage or renewing coverage after the sales closing date:
  • Insurance does not attach until the 31st day (30-day waiting period) after acceptable documents are filed; and
  • Premium is owed from the first day of the month insurance attaches.

Basic units are the only unit structure available under NVS. A basic unit consists of the following:

• All insurable plants;
• All insured plant categories; and
• Each practice that you elect to insure.

Basic units may be further divided by the following:

• For additional coverage:
  • Each plant category you elect to insure; or
  • Non-contiguous land, for field grown practice only.
• For catastrophic (CAT) coverage, further division of the basic unit is not allowed.

An administrative fee is due for each insured plant category if an additional level of coverage is elected, and for each insured practice if CAT coverage is elected.

No. Whether you have the catastrophic level of coverage or additional levels of coverage, NVS allows you to insure your field grown practice, your container grown practice or both. Additionally, for additional levels of coverage only, NVS allows you to choose which plant categories within the insured practice you wish you to insure. Once you have selected the plant categories you wish to insure, all plants within those plant categories must be insured.

Yes. You may increase your SV for each basic unit no more than twice during the crop year by submitting a revised NVR.

The insured crop will be all the plants within each insured practice for CAT coverage, and each plant category you choose to insure within each insured practice for additional levels of coverage and that:

• You have a share;
• Are determined by the insurance company to be acceptable;
• Are grown in a county for which a premium rate is provided in the actuarial documents;
• Are grown in a nursery determined by us to be acceptable;
• Are irrigated unless otherwise provided by the Special Provisions (you must have adequate irrigation equipment and water to irrigate all insurable nursery plants at the time coverage attaches and throughout the insurance period);
• Are grown in accordance with the production practices for which premium rates have been established;
• Are grown in an appropriate medium;
• Are grown and sold with the root system attached;
• Are not grown solely as stock plants or plants being grown solely for harvest of buds, flowers, or greenery;
• May produce edible fruits or nuts provided the plants are made available for sale (harvest of the edible fruit or nuts does not affect insurability);
• For the field grown practice, must be adapted in the hardiness zone recognized by the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map in which they are grown;
• For the container grown practice, are individual plants grown in standard nursery containers unless otherwise permitted by the Special Provisions;
• Were not damaged in a prior crop year unless such specific plants have been rehabilitated and are offered for sale at the approved sales value for the current crop year;
• Are not any plant classified by a state or county as illegal to grow or sell in the county in which the nursery is located; and
• Are not produced in nursery containers that contain two or more different genera, species, subspecies, varieties or cultivars, unless otherwise provided in the Special Provisions.

Yes, but with some restrictions. The 2018 Farm Bill allowed for coverage of industrial hemp in the Federal crop insurance program. In accordance with sections 8(h) and (i) of the NVS Crop Provisions, industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.), as defined in the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 (7 U.S.C. 1621 et seq.), is insurable when grown and sold with the root system attached in containers and are not stock plants or plants being grown solely for harvest of buds, flowers, or greenery.

• You must comply with all applicable Federal regulations and any applicable state or tribal laws.
• Regardless of state or tribal law, the sale of hemp with a THC level greater than 0.3 percent will be considered the sale of a controlled substance. Controlled substances are not insurable.
• If you produce industrial hemp in a state or tribal territory which has assumed regulatory responsibility for hemp production, you must comply with all requirements and provisions of the regulatory plan of that state or tribe and possess any license required by that plan. You must provide a copy of your license by the sales closing date.
• Industrial hemp must be produced using seed or plant cuttings adapted and appropriate for the intended use (for example, if planting industrial hemp to be harvested primarily for fiber, the seed must be adapted to fiber production). Industrial hemp that is unsalable or destroyed due to a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) level that exceeds 0.3 percent will be considered damaged due to uninsurable causes.

Amount amount of insurance is calculated by multiplying the coverage level you elect by the Selected Value (SV). The SV is the value you declare on your NVR of the insurable specific plants in each insured plant category.

• For additional levels of coverage:
  • The SV may not exceed the highest maximum value for the same plant category reported on your MUVP;
  • If you do not elect to create additional basic units by plant category as authorized by section 2(b)(1) of these Crop Provisions, your SV for the purpose of establishing the amount of insurance is the sum of the SVs you established for each plant category; and
  • You may be required at time of inspection to provide inventory records or comprehensive business plan to support the maximum values reported.
• For CAT level of coverage, your SV for each insured practice cannot exceed the lesser of:
  • 110 percent of the maximum value for all the plant categories in any given month during any of the preceding three crop years; or
  • The maximum of the monthly values reported on the MUVP. At the time of an inspection or at any time upon our request, you must provide inventory records to support the monthly values reported.

No, NVS does not use a plant list. Plant categories were created and defined in such a way that a plant list is not needed. Each plant category’s definition contains a list of genera to assist producers in grouping their plants for insurance purposes. The insurable plant categories are as follows:

• Liners
• Annual Plants and Plants Grown for One Year or Less
• Herbaceous Biennial and Perennial Plants
• Foliage Plants
• Vines
• Deciduous Trees and Shrubs
• Broadleaf Evergreen Trees and Shrubs
• Coniferous Trees and Shrubs
• Palms
• Cycads

Cold protection requirements may still be needed for container grown plants if cold protection is identified by plant category in the Special Provisions.

Note: These plant categories vary slightly from the insurable plant types under the Nursery FG&C program but are named in such a way that is familiar to producers.

Yes, you will need to submit a new application for NVS coverage.  To prevent a lapse in coverage, you must submit your NVS application and required documentation by the applicable NVS sales closing date.

If you suspect you have a loss, you must:

• First protect the plants from further damage by providing sufficient care;
• Then notify your insurance company within 72 hours of initial discovery of damage (but not later than 15 days after the end of the insurance period); and
• Cooperate with the insurance company in the settlement of claim.

In order to complete a settlement of claim, the insurance company will need the following information:

• Documentation that supports your NVR and inventory immediately prior to the loss occurrence.
  • Required documentation includes, but is not limited to, the following:
    • A detailed plant list that includes the full name of each specific plant;
    • Acceptable sales records for any specific plants that were sold the previous 60 days or 12 months, as applicable, that support the determination of approved sales value for each specific plant as described in section 1; and
    • Documentation or demonstrated performance of your ability to properly obtain and maintain nursery plants.
• You must maintain an inventory. If requested, you must provide:
  • Your most recent inventory; and
  • Purchase and sales records from the date of your most recent inventory to the date of loss occurrence

NVS addresses this concern by establishing clearly-defined criteria. Those criteria are split between two groups: 1) Liner and Annual Plants plant categories, and 2) all other plant categories. Losses are determined through a collaborative effort between the adjuster and you. In some cases, a third-party expert may need to be called in for additional guidance.

For Liner and Annual Plants plant categories, refer to the following:

For all other plant categories, refer to the following:

You must destroy or dispose of discarded damaged and dead/zero market value plants by a method approved by the insurance company.

To determine the loss, the loss adjuster needs to know the pre-loss actual unit value and the post-loss damage value.

• The pre-loss actual unit value is the total dollar value of all insurable specific plants in a basic unit, immediately prior to the occurrence of the loss event, determined by multiplying the approved sales value by the number of each specific plant and summing the results.

  Note: Pre-loss actual unit value is synonymous with field market value A under the Nursery FG&C program.

• The post-loss damage value is the total dollar value lost in a basic unit due to an insured cause of loss determined in section 12 using FCIC approved procedures and the damage factors contained in the Special Provisions.

  Note: Post-loss damage value is different than field market value B under the Nursery FG&C program in that post-loss damage value is the amount of damage to the plants, whereas field market value B is the value remaining after damage occurred.

Once the loss adjuster knows those two values, the loss adjuster determines the percent of loss by dividing the post-loss damage value by the pre-loss actual unit value.

The percent of loss is then multiplied by the lesser of the pre-loss actual unit value or the SV to arrive at the value of the loss.

The indemnity is then calculated by multiplying your share by the difference between the loss and the occurrence deductible.

You may purchase the Occurrence Loss Option (OLO). The OLO eliminates the unit deductible and pays a loss when the percent of loss exceeds 10 percent. The OLO is available for an additional premium and is only available for policies with an additional level of coverage.

Beginning with the 2026 crop year, the Peak Endorsement Pilot is available for purchase. For increased coverage during the designated peak period when your inventory value may be significantly higher than your selected value, you may consider the additional insurance coverage provided by a Peak Endorsement Pilot. You may purchase no more than one Peak Endorsement for each basic unit during the crop year unless you meet certain requirements in the endorsement. This endorsement is only available for policies with an additional level of coverage.

The Hurricane Insurance Protection – Wind Index (HIP-WI) Endorsement is also available for purchase if you have an additional level of coverage. The HIP-WI Endorsement provides coverage for a portion of the deductible, up to 95 percent of the expected crop value, of the underlying crop insurance policy when the county, or a county adjacent to it, is within the area of sustained hurricane-force winds from a named hurricane as published by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The HIP-WI Endorsement also includes a Tropical Storm Option. This option provides coverage for the same portion of the deductible of the underlying policy that is not otherwise covered, when the county, or a county adjacent to it, is subject to a tropical storm or a hurricane within its boundaries according to NOAA and determined by RMA.  HIP-WI must be elected by the sales closing date and the value of coverage will remain consistent with the coverage established at the beginning of the insurance period according to your original Nursery Value Report.  Proration of nursery crop premium based on the month coverage begins does not apply to HIP-WI coverage.  HIP-WI and the OLO may not be purchased on the same insured practice under the NVS policy.

NVS is available for purchase from your local crop insurance agent.  You can find a crop insurance agent at the following link on the Risk Management Agency (RMA) website:  www.rma.usda.gov/tools-reports/agent-locator.

These agents work for insurance companies that have reinsurance agreements with the RMA.