The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition in a blog post has praised the Trump administration’s decision to limit farmers’ ability to purchase “buy up” coverage for prevented planting.

“Prevented planting coverage protects farmers when extreme weather or other covered conditions prevent them from undertaking planned crop plantings,” NSAC said.

“Under this policy, producers could previously pay a premium to “buy up” additional prevented planting coverage, an option that created defacto revenue streams for the largest agribusinesses because of the savings generated by taxpayer subsidies.

“By reining in this option, the Agriculture Department’s Risk Management Agency will save taxpayers an estimated $1.4 billion while making the program stronger and more defensible,” NSAC said.

“We at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition have long called for this change and applaud RMA for taking this step toward modernizing the federal crop insurance program. We hope that this will be the first of several steps the administration takes toward making federal crop insurance more efficient, effective, transparent and equitable.”

NSAC represents smaller, environmentally minded farmers.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has disputed reports that the change will save $1.4 billion in government costs.