Future-Proof Your Farm: ARC and PLC 2024 Registration Available

The Farm Service Agency (FSA) has opened enrollment for the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs for the 2024 crop year.

2018 "Farm Bill" officially extended

President Biden signed H.R. 6363, the Further Continuing Appropriations and Other Extensions Act, 2024 (Pub. L. 118-22), into law on November 16, 2023. This bill, in part, extended the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (known as the "Farm Bill") through September 30, 2024.

FSA Administrator Zach Ducheneaux stated:

Having the Farm Bill extension in place means business as usual for Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage program implementation for the 2024 crop year— nothing has changed from previous years. These programs provide critical financial protections against commodity market volatilities for many American farmers so don’t delay enrollment. Avoid the rush and contact your local FSA office for an appointment because even if you are not changing your program election for 2024, you still need to sign a contract to enroll.

ARC/PLC enrollment elections and enrollment

Enrollment and election changes for the 2024 crop year are available as of December 18, 2023; the deadline for completing these changes is March 15, 2024. If an election revision is not received by the March 15 deadline, the election will remain the same as the 2023 crop year.

Election changes are optional, but enrollment requires a signed contract for the year. Producers with existing multi-year contracts will see it continue for 2024 unless an election change is made.

Producers can elect coverage and enroll in ARC-County (ARC-CO) or PLC, which provide crop-by-crop protection, or ARC-Individual (ARC-IC), which protects the entire farm.

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 grain rice, safflower seed, seed cotton, sesame, soybeans, sunflower seed and wheat.

ARC and PLC payments for a given crop year are paid out the following fall to allow actual county yields and the Market Year Average prices to be finalized. These payments help mitigate fluctuations in either revenue or prices for certain crops. Payments for crops that may trigger for the 2023 crop year will be issued in the fall of 2024.

Payments for the 2022 Crop Year

As detailed in a USDA press release: this fall, FSA issued payments totaling more than $267 million to agricultural producers who enrolled in the 2022 ARC-CO option and the ARC ARC-IC option for covered commodities that triggered a payment. Payments through the PLC option did not trigger for the 2022 crop year.

Producers reminded that ARC/PLC can affect eligibility for other crop insurance

Producers are reminded that ARC and PLC elections and enrollments can impact eligibility for some crop insurance products.

Producers on farms with a PLC election can purchase Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) through their Approved Insurance Provider; however, producers on farms where ARC is the election are ineligible for SCO on their planted acres for that crop on that farm.

Unlike SCO, the Enhanced Coverage Option (ECO) is unaffected by an ARC election.  Producers may add ECO regardless of the farm program election.

Upland cotton farmers who choose to enroll seed cotton base acres in ARC or PLC are ineligible for the stacked income protection plan (STAX) on their planted cotton acres for that farm.