Agricultural producers should start to make elections and enroll in the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs for the 2023 crop year. These key U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) safety-net programs help producers weather fluctuations in either revenue or price for certain crops.
Enrollment for the 2023 crop year program closes March 15, 2023. Sounds like a long time, but it really is only about 2.5 months.
ARC provides income support payments on historical base acres when actual crop revenue declines below a specified guaranteed level. PLC provides income support payments on historical base acres when the effective price for a covered commodity falls below its reference price.
Covered commodities include the Tallahatchie County crops of corn, seed cotton, rice, soybeans, grain sorghum, peanuts and wheat.
Producers can elect coverage and enroll in crop-by-crop ARC-County or PLC, or ARC-Individual for the entire farm for the 2023 crop year. Although election changes for 2023 are optional, 2023 reenrollment requires a new contract be signed by all producers that share in the crops being grown in 2023.
Multi-year enrollment contracts do not have to be signed every year. Those contracts were signed up in 2019 and will run for five years with the original elections.
If a producer has a multi-year contract on the farm and makes an election change for 2023, it will be necessary to sign a new contract. If a producer has changed an election on a multi-year contract for any crop acreage base since 2019, a new contract will have to be signed for 2023, even if no change in program elections will occur from last year.
If a new election is not submitted by the deadline of March 15, 2023, on a multi-year contract, the election defaults to the current election for crops on the farm from the prior crop year. All producers that changed crop election during the last three years, will have to sign a new contract for 2023.
2023 is the last year of the 2018 Farm Bill, producers will have the opportunity to make new program elections during this annual sign-up. Farm owners cannot enroll in either program unless they have a share interest in crops produced on the farm. The election decision making is limited to operator of the farm and landowners with a crop share interest in the crops grown on the farm in 2023. No election is permanent and can always be changed before the sign-up deadline in the current year.
Farms that change operators, owners or producers in 2023 will always require a new ARC/PLC contract be signed with FSA.
What to do as far as election changes? Producers have several options available to evaluate the best program election option for 2023.
Contact your Tallahatchie County Farm Service Agency for tools available to evaluate options.
