Farmers Encouraged to Make ARC/PLC Election Before Deadline
WASHINGTON, DC – The 2018 Farm Bill put into place safety net programs to help farmers survive substantial drops in crop prices or revenue. Two of these are Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs, and in order to participate a producer must sign a 2021 enrollment contract prior to March 15, 2021. Also, producers who want to make an election change must schedule an appointment at the local Farm Service Agency (FSA) office prior to the deadline. Program enrollment for 2021 is required in order to participate in the programs, but elections for the 2021 crop year are optional and otherwise remain the same as elections made for 2020. According to USDA, more than 1 million contracts have been completed (1,033,310) but represent less than 60 percent of the contracts FSA expects to be filed. Producers who do not complete enrollment by the close of business (local time) on Monday, March 15 will not be enrolled in ARC or PLC for the 2021 crop year and will be ineligible to receive payment should one trigger for an eligible crop. Producers are eligible to enroll farms with base acres for 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. For more information on ARC and PLC including web-based decision tools, visit farmers.gov