Enrollment Under Way For Farm Bill Safety Net Programs

Farmers have until Sept. 30 to formally enroll in the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) or Price Loss Coverage (PLC) safety-net programs for 2014 and 2015 according to a USDA press release. Farmers and producers had until April 7 to make a one-time choice of the program in which they would participate.

The new programs, established by the 2014 farm bill, trigger financial protections for producers when market forces cause substantial drops in crop prices or revenues. More than 1.76 million farmers have elected ARC or PLC. In Georgia 100 percent of peanut farms elected for PLC, while Georgia farmers producing all the other covered crops generally favored ARC.

 For instance, 87 percent of Georgia's soybean growers, 84 percent of the state's corn growers and 74 percent of its grain sorghum growers went with ARC. Nationwide, 96 percent of soybean farms, 91 percent of corn farms and 66 percent of wheat farms elected ARC while 99 percent of peanut farms, 99 percent of long grain rice farms and 94 percent of medium grain rice farms elected PLC.