Sunflower farmers say improved oilseed market conditions during the upcoming growing season might help persuade the federal government to keep a relatively new insurance program, with a few changes.

The Agriculture Depart-ment's Risk Management Agency last year proposed doing away with "revenue assurance" coverage for sunflowers starting in 2009, as part of an effort to simplify the overall crop insurance program. A public comment period ended last fall, but a final decision has not yet been made.

"Nobody knows what's going on," said Mike Clemens, a Wimbledon farmer and past-chairman of the National Sunflower Association. "It's just sitting in limbo at this point."

Brent Doane, a Risk Management Agency spokesman in Washington, D.C., said he did not know when a final decision would be made. He said the public comment period was extended for about a month last fall, and that the Risk Management Agency has been working with the sunflower group.

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