USDA announces ARC, PLC payments, NAP extension; Disaster designations declared for Oklahoma and Texas

by Eric

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture made several important announcements in recent days that could affect many Southwest farmers and ranchers.

Late last week USDA announced that nearly half of the farmers who signed up for the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) or Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs will receive payments for the 2014 crop year.  Some 1.7 million producers signed up for those programs, authorized in the Agriculture Act of 2014.

“Unlike the old direct payments program, which paid farmers in good years and bad, the 2014 Farm Bill authorized a new safety-net that protects producers only when market forces or adverse weather cause unexpected drops in crop prices or revenues,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

“For example, the corn price for 2014 is 30 percent below the historical benchmark price used by the ARC-County program, and revenues of the farms participating in the ARC-County program are down by about $20 billion from the benchmark during the same period. The nearly $4 billion provided by the ARC and PLC safety-net programs will give assistance to producers where revenues dropped below normal.”

The ARC/PLC programs primarily allow producers to continue to produce for the market by making payments on a percentage of historical base production, limiting the impact on production decisions.

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