How to Get a Farm Subsidy

Compare the programs. Farmers can receive subsidies if the price of their crops falls below a certain benchmark set by Congress. However, they must choose to enroll either for Price Loss Coverage or Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC). Also, ARC comes in two forms.

• Price Loss Coverage. You receive a payment if your covered commodity is below the reference price. Payments are made on a crop-by-crop basis using your farm’s base acreage and program yield. You can enter covered commodities individually.
• ARC-County option. FSA will estimate crop revenue using the average county yield. You will receive payment if the crop revenue falls below the ARC-County guaranteed revenue. You can enter covered commodities individually.
• ARC-Individual option. If the actual revenue from all of your covered commodities is less than the ARC-Individual guarantee, then you will receive payment. If you choose this option, then you must enter all covered commodities.

Check if you grow a qualifying commodity. Not every commodity is eligible for price loss payments or ARC coverage. Instead, only the following will qualify:^[5]

• barley
• corn
• rice (medium grain, long grain, and California medium grain)
• oats
• grain sorghum
• wheat
• chickpeas (large and small)
• peanuts
• soybeans
• dry peas
• lentils
• other oilseeds

Contact your FSA office. In order to qualify, you will also need to meet certain Adjusted Gross Income limits and be actively engaged in farming.^[6] Talk to FSA staff about whether Price Loss Coverage or Agricultural Risk Coverage is better for you. Once you make a choice, you can’t change easily.

Check if you are eligible. The protection program is only open to certain dairy producers in the United States. To be eligible, you must meet the following criteria:^[7]

• You produce and market milk from cows that are in the U.S.
• You can provide proof of milk production when you register.
• You aren’t enrolled in the Risk Management Agency’s Livestock Gross Margin for Dairy Program.

Choose your level of coverage. FSA provides catastrophic coverage, which doesn’t cost you anything apart from a basic $100 annual administrative fee. However, you can also choose different levels of buy-up coverage.^[8]

Find out the registration period. Enrollment is limited to certain times of the year. For example, to get coverage for 2017, you must enroll between July 1, 2016 and December 16, 2016.^[9] If you miss this deadline, then contact your local FSA to ask when the next enrollment period will be.

Apply for the program. You can apply by getting the appropriate forms from your local FSA. You will need to complete and submit the following:^[10]

• CCC-781, “Production History Establishment”
• CCC-782, “Contract and Annual Coverage Election”

Identify the different disaster programs. The FSA administers many different programs that provide disaster relief. You can find summaries on this convenient fact sheet: http://www.fsa.usda.gov/Internet/FSA_File/disaster_assistance_program.pdf. Generally, the following programs are available:

• Funding to rehabilitate damaged farmland.
• Funding to restore rural private forests destroyed by natural disasters.
• Emergency assistance for producers of livestock, honeybees, and farm-raised fish.
• Emergency loans to help producers recover from losses caused by natural disasters.
• Assistance to orchardists and nursery tree growers to replant or rehabilitate.
• Compensation for grazing losses suffered due to drought or fire on Federally managed land.

Check eligibility requirements. Each disaster program has different eligibility requirements which cannot be summarized here. You should stop into your FSA office to check whether you qualify. To qualify, you generally must be in areas designated by FSA as eligible for disaster relief. There are also requirements for eligible livestock. For example, the following livestock are covered for grazing losses due to drought or fire under the livestock forage disaster program:

• alpacas
• beef cattle
• buffalo
• beefalo
• dairy cattle
• deer
• elk
• emus
• equine
• goats
• llama
• poultry
• reindeer
• sheep
• swine

Apply with your local FSA office. You must submit a completed application and required supporting documentation to your local FSA office. There will be different deadlines depending on which disaster program you are applying for.

• For example, you must submit your application within 30 days after the end of the calendar year in which you suffered a loss if you are seeking assistance under the livestock forage disaster program.
• If you are applying for tree assistance, then you must apply within 90 days of the disaster or when it became apparent that you suffered a loss.

Check when you can apply. If you have owned or operated the land for at least 12 months, then you can apply. You can enroll in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in two ways. You should pick the method which works best for you:

• General sign-up. General sign-ups are announced periodically by the Secretary of Agriculture. They do not occur at set intervals. Instead, you should ask your local FSA office to notify you of when a general sign-up has been announced.
• Continuous sign-up. You can also apply any time that you want using continuous sign-up. Unlike general sign-up, offers are not subject to competitive bidding.^[11] Instead, FSA will identify the most environmentally-sensitive lands and enroll them in the program.

Confirm you qualify. To qualify for general sign-up, your land must meet certain conditions. You should check to see that your land qualifies:

• You must have planted cropland four of the past six years between 2008 and 2013, and the land must be capable of being planted.
• Alternately, certain pastures that can act as riparian buffers also qualify.
• The land must be sufficiently vulnerable to erosion.