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USDA issues safetynet payments to North Carolina farmers facing market downturn
Story Date: 11/18/2015
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Source: USDA, 11/17/15
USDA North Carolina Farm Service Agency (FSA) State Executive Director, Bob Etheridge announced that approximately 50,000 North Carolina farms who enrolled in the new safetynet programs established by the 2014 Farm Bill will soon begin receiving financial assistance for the 2014 crop year. The programs, known as Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC), are designed to protect against unexpected drops in crop prices or revenues due to market downturns.
These new safetynet programs provide help when price and revenues fall below normal, unlike the previous direct payments program that provided funds even in good years, said Etheridge. For example, 33 Counties in North Carolina harvest peanuts, and peanut producers have experienced a 18 percent drop in price below the historical benchmark price established by the PLC program. For wheat and soybeans growers, the average price for the market year was higher than the historical benchmark established by the programs, so financial assistance did not occur.
Similarly, the countybased option of ARC protects against lower revenue from a combination of price and yield.
Payments by county can vary because average county yields will differ, said Etheridge
More details on the price and yield information used to calculate the financing assistance from the safetynet programs is available on the FSA website at www.fsa.usda.gov/arcplc and
www.fsa.usda.gov/nc .
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