Farmers who have not yet completed their 2019 crop year enrollment in the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs must schedule an appointment to do so with their local USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) by Monday, March 16.
“To date, more than 1.4 million contracts have been signed for the 2019 crop year. This represents 89 percent of expected enrollment with less than a week left for producers to get on FSA’s appointment books,” FSA Administrator Richard Fordyce said. “If you’ve not completed your elections or enrollment, the clock is ticking, and your program eligibility is at stake. So, please call FSA today and request an appointment.”
Farmers who do not contact FSA for an appointment by close of business local time on Monday, March 16, will not be enrolled in ARC or PLC for the 2019 crop year and will be ineligible to receive a payment should one trigger for an eligible crop.
ARC and PLC provide income support to farmers from substantial drops in crop prices or revenues and are vital economic safety nets for most American farms.
The programs cover the following commodities: barley, canola, large and small chickpeas, corn, crambe, flaxseed, grain sorghum, lentils, mustard seed, oats, peanuts, dry peas, rapeseed, long grain rice, medium and short grain rice, safflower seed, seed cotton, sesame, soybeans, sunflower seed and wheat.
ARC-CO uses county yields and marketing year average prices to determine a benchmark revenue guarantee. Yields will come from county crop insurance reported yields.
PLC uses reference price to determine payments. If the marketing year average price is higher than these reference prices, there will be no PLC payments.
ARC-IC uses the farmer’s actual crops planted and compares those yields to previous five-year average yields, along with marketing year average price, and determines if actual income falls below the benchmark revenue.
For more information on ARC and PLC, download FSA’s program fact sheet or the 2014-2018 farm bills comparison fact sheet. Online ARC and PLC election decision tools are available at www.fsa.usda.gov/arc-plc.
Visit farmers.gov/service-locator to find location and contact information for the nearest FSA county office to schedule your enrollment appointment.