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USDA encourages farmers to enroll in crop safety net programs, access new base acres

USDA’s Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation says more than 30 million new base acres have been added to this year’s crop safety net programs.

 Richard Fordyce tells Brownfield, “It’s been over 20 years since we’ve had any kind of an opportunity to add base acres really to farms.”

“We’re farming differently now, we’re growing more crops in some states than we ever did in the past,” he says.

He says there is a prorated reduction for the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) program because eligible acres exceeded what Congress allocated as part of the Working Families Tax Cuts Act.

“The crop that’s out there right now, in some cases, probably even harvested, to sign up for the enrollment for the 2026 crop started September 16th and runs through December 11^th,” he says.

Fordyce says ACR and PLC payments for the 2025 season are expected to be sent to farmers in October with increased reference prices approved by Congress. Base acre adjustments will be included in next year’s payments.

Covered commodities include 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.