Agriculture risk, price loss coverage extended

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Agricultural producers can now enroll in the Farm Service Agency’s Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage programs for the 2024 crop year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced last week.

Producers can enroll and make election changes until March 15.

On Nov. 16, 2023, President Joe Biden signed House Resolution 6363, the Further Continuing Appropriations and Other Extensions Act, 2024, which extended the 2018 Farm Bill through September 30, 2024.

This extension allows authorized programs, including ARC and PLC, to continue operating.

Producers can elect coverage and enroll in ARC-County or PLC, which provide crop-by-crop protection, or ARC-Individual, which protects the entire farm.

Although election changes for 2024 are optional, producers must enroll through a signed contract each year. If a producer has a multi-year contract on the farm, it will continue for 2024 unless an election change is made.

If producers do not submit their election revisions by the March 15, deadline, their elections remain the same as their 2023 election for commodities on the farm.

Farm owners cannot enroll in either program unless they have a share interest in the cropland.

Covered commodities include barley, canola, large and small chickpeas, corn, crambe, flaxseed, grain sorghum, lentils, mustard seed, oats, peanuts, dry peas, rapeseed, long grain rice, medium grain rice, safflower seed, seed cotton, sesame, soybeans, sunflower seed and wheat.

This fall, FSA issued payments totaling more than $267 million to agricultural producers who enrolled in the 2022 ARC-CO option and the ARC ARC-IC option for covered commodities that triggered a payment.

Payments through the PLC option did not trigger for the 2022 crop year.

ARC and PLC payments for a given crop year are paid out the following fall to allow actual county yields and the Market Year Average prices to be finalized. These payments help mitigate fluctuations in either revenue or prices for certain crops.

Payments for crops that may trigger for the 2023 crop year will be issued in the fall of 2024.

ARC and PLC are part of a broader USDA safety net that also includes crop insurance and marketing assistance loans. ARC and PLC elections and enrollments can impact eligibility for some crop insurance products.

Producers on farms with a PLC election can purchase Supplemental Coverage Option through their Approved Insurance Provider; however, producers on farms where ARC is the election are ineligible for SCO on their planted acres for that crop on that farm.

Unlike SCO, the Enhanced Coverage Option is unaffected by an ARC election.  Producers may add ECO regardless of the farm program election.

Upland cotton farmers who choose to enroll seed cotton base acres in ARC or PLC are ineligible for the stacked income protection plan on their planted cotton acres for that farm.

For more information on ARC and PLC, producers can visit the ARC and PLC webpage or contact their local USDA Service Centers.

 Producers can also make elections and complete enrollment online.