Release Notes 8.095.0

2020 Special Provisions were made available by the RMA and were implemented in the System. These Provisions have been updated for the 2020 RY / 2021 CY:

CAT: This ticket made some updates to the CAT endorsement provisions and the Replant and Double Cropping Amendment (18-CCIP-Replant and Double Crop). Now, the CAT endorsement provisions only print for policies with CAT coverages, and the Replant and Double Cropping Amendment (18-CCIP-Replant and Double Crop) modified the provisions of the Common Crop Insurance Policy Basic Provisions (CCIP, 17-BR) for the 2018 and succeeding Crop Years for all crops with a 2018 Contract Change Date on or after June 30, 2017 and prior to November 30, 2017. The Replant and Double Cropping Amendment has been included in the 18-BR, and it was updated to not print for 2020.

Provisions print with the MPCI Policy Declaration Page when the print option to "print provisions with the form" is selected.

HIP: A new print option was added to the MPCI Application to give users the ability to print the Hurricane Insurance Protection Application Supplement. This new print option, "Hurricane Insurance Protection (HIP) Endorsement Application Supplement", displays on the MPCI Application in alpha order for each report style in the other print options.

NOTE: In a future release with TFS #114730, HIP data will be added to this form, and, if the HIP Application Supplement is printed with the SCO, STAX, and/or Nursery Application Supplement, the HIP Application Supplement will print after the other Application Supplements. The Application Supplement pages print after the coverage information has printed, before the Conditions of Acceptance.

Apple Trees: The Acreage Report for Apple Trees was updated for all years so Apple Tree acreage reporting data can be captured:

Nursery: During testing, it was found that the "Plant Type" label was incorrectly displaying as "Plant Category" on the Nursery Value Report (NVR). This issue has been resolved.

Nursery: The Nursery Catalog Checklist was updated to be consistent with base form standards, and the revision date for the form was updated to "03-2020".

The FL Citrus Fruit PAW format was updated to pre-fill the answers for Questions #3 and #4 entered on the PAW UI for the PAW questions. This update is for all years.

The "other crops" format of the MPCI Policy Declaration Page (this is the format for all crops except Nursery, PRF / API, Annual Forage, and WFRP) has been updated to print the Enterprise Units by Cropping Practice abbreviation in parentheses after the Option abbreviation of EC in the Options field for the applicable coverage, when applicable, for all years. This is the same functionality as Enterprise Units by Irrigation Practice on the MPCI Policy Declaration Page.

Hemp: When the original Hemp documentation from RMA was released, the "S" Yield Type was not listed in the approved Yield Types. Additionally, the wording within the documentation said that one year of history must exist. Further clarification has since been received from RMA that will allow no history to exist in the APH and will allow the "S" Yield Type so long as the producer has evidence to prove that they have had at least one year of Hemp history on that unit. In addition, the policy language stated that New Producer would not be allowed for Hemp but was contradicted by the White Papers stating that Yield Type codes of "I" and "IL" were valid. They have also been changed to invalid Yield Types per the 2/27/2020 PASS Status Report.

With this ticket, the original APH logic was updated to no longer run validation logic upon save of the APH to verify that at least one year of history exists and logic will be revised to allow the "S" Yield Type within the Hemp APH. Also, the "I" and "IL" Yield Types are not applicable for Hemp as New Producer procedures are not allowed with Hemp (1218).

APH: The RMA implemented some mid-year changes to their P15 and P15A record validations for the 2020+ RYs. They replaced several obsolete errors with 4 new P15 error codes: 129606, 129607, 129608, and 129609. After implementation of the changes in the February production release on 2/19/2020, AIPs began seeing some previously cleared APH records go into error.

Prior to the change in this ticket, the existing logic around the TA and YA transmission had been in place since 2014. Since implementation, the only time the YA option code and a YLF of "09" were to be transmitted on the P15 record was if the Adjusted Yield (with YA) was greater than the Average Yield. The System was applying only the crop option of TA and a YLF of "14" if the Adjusted Yield (with YA) was equal to the Average Yield. The RMA's out-of-cycle PASS production release on 2/26/2020 confirmed that RMA had a hole in the PASS validation that was discovered at the time of their new validation logic and was corrected when the new process was implemented.

With this ticket, the TA calculation was updated to apply YA + TA option codes as well as a YLF of "9" if any year in the history applies YA and the Adjusted Yield (with YA) is greater than or equal to the Average Yield. The YA option code will also be applied if the TA and YC option applies to the approved APH calculation. RMA has elected to make this change for the 2019 and 2020 RYs.

NOTE: RMA's change in the 2020 RY was released to production during their February production release. RMA made the change to the 2019 RY on 3/11/2020. As a result, the production environments for 2019 and 2020 have actual errors being received. AIPs were instructed to send an ICP (Include Cleared Policies) transmission for both years to ensure all policies were bouncing against the new RMA validations.

Nursery: With this ticket, coverage functionality for Nursery Value Select (NVS) has been implemented, allowing users to now create new NVS coverages. The following functionality was added for NVS coverages:

Perennials: An issue was reported with an APH calculation when there were YE eligible years within the most recent 3 years of the APH base period. The CIH procedures state that when eligible YE years fall within the most recent years in the base period, alternate bearing testing is not applicable; downward trending, however, does apply. The System was correctly skipping the alternate bearing tests and reflecting "N/A" on the Variability Test page. Although, procedure states that in determining the 3 year average for the Downward Trend tests, YE-eligible years should be excluded from the calculation. With this ticket, System logic was updated for downward trend testing so that when there are YE eligible years that exist in the most recent 3 years, the System will exclude the YE-eligible years from the calculation.

Perennials: For the Apple Tree pilot program, System logic was updated on coverages to allow for the election of the Fire Blight crop option. If Fire Blight is offered for the State/County/Crop/Type, the System will allow for the selection of the Fire Blight checkbox in addition to non Fire Blight crop options. When the Fire Blight checkbox is selected, the System will then display the correct Fire Blight crop option combinations along with the non Fire Blight crop options that were selected in the Selected Options field.

Perennials: Logic was added to stand up the Pre-Acceptance Worksheet (PAW) for the new Apple Tree pilot program. Functionality was also added for the existing Plan 40 validations and suspension logic for the 2020 RY for the new Apple Tree pilot program.

NOTE: TFS #115113 and 115114 have been set up to address the following issues: a display error was found on the View and Maintain Detail Line pages; and when a practice (density type) is changed on the detail line, the System is wiping out information within the PAW.

Perennials: A bug was reported from an AIP where the System was calculating the Higher Yield according to the Davis RO UW Guidelines but the View link in the APH was disabled (greyed out), so users were unable to open and view the actual calculations. Trees fell within the Davis UW exceptions, and after hand calculating, it was determined the approved yield was being calculated correctly. The System was updated to fix the bug that was preventing the Higher Yield Calculation View link from displaying in the APH. Users are now able to select the hyperlink and view the actual calculations.

Perennials: During internal review, it was found that the PAW contained 2 underwriting questions that were not a part of the CIH and DSSH requirements for FL Citrus Fruit. Further, it was determined that these 2 questions were not included in the printed Producers Pre-Acceptance Worksheet. With this ticket, the last 2 questions regarding the organic practice and the direct marketing/vertically integrated structure have been removed from the UI for the 2020+ RYs. Since all processing is completed for the 2019 and prior RYs, no changes were applied to those years.