USDA Safety-Net
USDA Idaho Farm Service Agency (FSA) Executive Director, Mark Samson announced that approximately 1600 or 13% of Idaho farms who enrolled in the new safety-net programs established by the 2014 Farm Bill will soon begin receiving financial assistance for the 2014 crop year. The programs, known as Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC), are designed to protect against unexpected drops in crop prices or revenues due to market downturns.
"These new safety-net programs provide help when price and revenues fall below normal, unlike the previous direct payments program that provided funds even in good years," said Samson. "For example, many Idaho wheat growers experienced revenue prices below the established guarantee for wheat in their county. Idaho also has 23 counties who harvest corn and these counties experienced a 30.1 percent drop in price below the historical benchmark price established by the ARC-CO program. For these counties payment distribution began in October. However, in counties where revenue from a combination of price and yield were the same or higher, no financial assistance occurred."
No Idaho crops with a final marketing year average price calculated to date will receive PLC payments. Pulse crops could trigger payments once final marketing year average prices are determined. "Other crops that fell below the established guarantee included barley and oats. This is not a full list of the crops," said Samson. "Payments by county can vary because crops and average county yields will differ."
Statewide, 2,768 farms participated in ARC-County for all crops; 7760 farms participated in PLC for all crops; 1,936 participated in ARC-County for some crops and PLC on others. As of November 5th, PLC payments have not triggered because the effective price of the covered commodities has been higher than the respective reference price for that commodity. More details on the price and yield information used to calculate the financing assistance from the safety-net programs is available on the FSA website at www.fsa.usda.gov/arc-plc.
