USDA Farm Programs, Explained: Crop Insurance, ARC, PLC, EQIP and CSP

The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 is still the governing farm bill. USDA's Risk Management Agency states on its farm bill page that the Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Extensions Act, 2026, extended it, and that the extension allows authorized programs to continue through Sept. 30, 2026. This post is dated 31 August 2026. That is thirty days.

There is a second law on top of it. P.L. 119-21 was signed on 4 July 2025. USDA uses two names for it: FSA's May 2026 base acre news release calls it the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, FSA's June 2026 letter to landowners calls it the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and RMA's farm bill page uses the second. They are the same statute, and it rewrote parts of the commodity and crop insurance titles. The landowner letter says it authorized "the continuation of the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs for the 2026 through 2031 crop years."

So the picture is layered rather than tidy: some program authority runs to 2031 under the 2025 law, while the farm bill extension underneath it lapses on 30 September 2026. We are not going to guess what Congress does next. We mention it because it is the honest frame for everything that follows, and because it is the reason every number in this post carries a year.

You cannot buy a federal crop insurance policy from USDA. RMA puts it flatly in its news releases: "Crop insurance is sold and delivered solely through private crop insurance agents." If you want coverage, you deal with a company, not a government office.

The mechanism behind that is worth knowing, because it explains why the terms are not negotiable. RMA states that the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation "is a government corporation within USDA authorized to carry out programs of the Federal Crop Insurance Act," and that "The Risk Management Agency acts on behalf of FCIC to administer all Federal crop insurance programs." The two sides are joined by the Standard Reinsurance Agreement, which RMA describes as "a cooperative financial assistance agreement between the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) and an insurance company," setting "the terms under which FCIC provides reinsurance and subsidies on eligible crop insurance contracts sold by the insurance company."

The practical consequence for a producer is twofold. The policy language and the premium rate are federal, so shopping between agents does not change the price of the same coverage. And the premium you pay is a share, not the whole cost: USDA's Economic Research Service reports that in 2024, on average, producers were responsible for paying 38 percent of their policy premiums, with the federal government covering the remaining 62 percent.

RMA's line is short and it is the single most useful sentence in the program: "Crop insurance coverage decisions must be made on or before the applicable sales closing date." Not the paperwork, not the acreage report, not the premium billing. The coverage decision. After that date, for that crop and that crop year, the decision is made.

In its 5 August 2026 release on fall planted crops, RMA said the next major sales closing dates were 1 September and 30 September, and that coverage purchased then applies to the 2027 crop year. This trips people up every autumn. The crop year is named for the harvest, not the planting, so winter wheat drilled this September is insured under 2027.

Earlier in the year the pattern was the same. RMA's 2 April 2026 release named 1 May, 15 May, 15 July and 31 July as the next major sales closing dates, also for the 2027 crop year. We are not going to tell you which of those governs your crop, because RMA does not either: it stresses in the same release that "Sales closing dates vary by crop and location," and points producers to the Actuarial Information Browser — the 'Dates' tab — and the RMA Map Viewer. The governing date is the one printed in the actuarial documents for that crop in that county. It will not match a neighbour's, and it will not match another crop on the same farm.

RMA's Manager's Bulletin MGR-25-006, issued 20 August 2025, sets out the immediate changes. The premium subsidy rate for the Supplemental Coverage Option went from 65 to 80 percent, and RMA applied the same 80 percent rate to the Enhanced Coverage Option, the Margin Coverage Option, the Hurricane Insurance Protection Wind Index and the Fire Insurance Protection Smoke Index. Whole-Farm Revenue Protection's maximum insurable coverage level rose from 85 to 90 percent. All of it took effect for policies with a sales closing date on or after 1 July 2025.

The same bulletin widened the Beginning Farmer and Rancher definition to cover someone who has not actively operated and managed a farm or ranch for more than 10 crop years, up from 5. The additional premium subsidy rate that goes with it is 15 percent for the first two crop years, 13 percent for the third, 11 percent for the fourth, and 10 percent for the fifth through tenth. Amended BFR applications for 2026 crop year policies were due 30 November 2025.

The change most often reported wrongly is the SCO coverage level. The 2025 law raises SCO's maximum from 86 to 90 percent and allows SCO to be bought regardless of the insured's ARC election with FSA — but not yet. RMA's Product Management Bulletin PM-26-036, dated 30 June 2026, implements it beginning with the 2027 crop year for crops with a 30 June 2026 contract change date, and beginning with the 2028 crop year for crops with earlier contract change dates. That is a genuinely complex rule and we are not going to flatten it: which year it reaches you depends on your crop's contract change date. For anyone reading in 2026, the older restriction still binds. Under the 2025 program year rules, electing ARC made a producer ineligible for SCO on planted acres, and producers enrolling seed cotton base in ARC or PLC were ineligible for STAX on planted cotton acres.

FSA's ARC and PLC fact sheet, dated September 2025, lists 22 covered commodities: wheat, oats, barley, corn, grain sorghum, long grain rice, medium and short grain rice, temperate japonica rice, seed cotton, dry peas, lentils, large and small chickpeas, soybeans, peanuts, sunflower seed, canola, flaxseed, mustard seed, rapeseed, safflower, crambe and sesame seed.

Payment acres under ARC-CO and PLC equal 85 percent of the farm's base acres of that covered commodity. And FSA is explicit that the payment does not follow the crop: "PLC payments are not dependent upon the planting of a covered commodity or planting of the applicable base crop on the farm," with the same rule for ARC-CO. ARC-IC is the exception — "ARC-IC payments are dependent upon the planting of covered commodities on the farm" — and it pays on 65 percent of the farm's total covered commodity base acres.

FSA gives the ARC-CO calculation plainly: "The ARC-CO benchmark revenue is the 5-year Olympic average MYA price multiplied by the 5-year Olympic average county yield." The guarantee is 90 percent of that benchmark, raised from 86 percent by the 2025 law. ARC-IC is the whole-farm option, using the producer's own certified yields, and its guarantee was not raised with it: the fact sheet states that "The farm's ARC-IC guarantee equals 86% of the ARC-IC farm's weighted benchmark revenue."

There is one number here where two USDA sources disagree, and it is worth naming rather than hiding. ARC payment rates are capped. USDA's Economic Research Service states that for the 2014 through 2024 crop years payment rates could not exceed 10 percent of the ARC benchmark revenue, and that the 2025 law raised the cap to 12 percent for the 2025 through 2031 crop years. FSA's September 2025 fact sheet still prints 10 percent, for both ARC-CO and ARC-IC. The fact sheet is scoped to the 2025 program year and appears not to have been updated for the new cap. If the cap is load-bearing in your election, confirm the figure with FSA rather than with either document.

PLC pays when a covered commodity's effective price falls below its effective reference price. FSA defines the first half plainly: "The effective price equals the higher of the national market year average price (MYA) or the national average loan rate for the covered commodity." The second half is where people get lost. The effective reference price is "the lesser of 115% of the reference price or an amount equal to the greater of the reference price or 88% of the average of MYA prices from the 5 preceding years, excluding the highest and lowest price." The 88 percent is a change from the previous 85 percent, made by the 2025 law.

The 2026 numbers make the formula legible without writing it out twice. FSA's 2026 effective reference price table, dated 12 August 2026, computes the year's figures from the 2020/21 to 2024/25 market year average prices. Wheat's statutory reference price is $6.35/bu and its effective reference price is also $6.35 — it sits on the statutory floor. Corn's statutory price is $4.10/bu but its effective price is $4.42, because recent market year averages were strong enough to lift it. Soybeans go from $10.00 to $10.71, grain sorghum from $4.40 to $4.67, barley from $5.45 to $5.58, oats from $2.65 to $3.05. Peanuts at $0.3150/lb, long grain rice at $0.1690/lb and seed cotton at $0.4200/lb are all at their statutory floors for 2026. Statutory and effective are different numbers, and for a grower the gap between them decides whether a price triggers a payment at all.

The prices driving all of this come from one place. The source note on FSA's own table names USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service, "Agricultural Prices." Watching the market year average as it forms through the season is how a grower gets an early read on whether a covered commodity is heading toward a PLC trigger. We build YieldAI Global, which is live and paid in the USA at $9.99 a month after a 30-day free trial and takes its US market prices from USDA. It reports prices. It does not file your paperwork, calculate your program payments, or advise you on an election — for those, FSA is the answer.

The ARC and PLC payment limitation is per person or legal entity, and it moves. The statutory limit rose from $125,000, where it stood for program years 2019 through 2024, to $155,000 starting with crop year 2025 under the 2025 law. It is then indexed: FSA's payment limitations page states that the limitation "will be adjusted annually for inflation based on the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics." The inflation-adjusted table on that page gives the amounts that actually apply: $160,000 for program year 2025 and $164,000 for 2026. The 2027 and 2028 figures are listed as TBD. Read the statutory figure and the applied figure as two different things, because FSA prints them in two different tables.

Peanuts have their own row in that table, at the same amounts. That is the point of the row: the peanut limitation is separate from the limitation on other covered commodities, not a share of it.

The average adjusted gross income limitation for payment eligibility is $900,000. In a news release dated 3 June 2026, FSA said producers "are exempt from the $900,000 AGI cap for conservation and disaster programs if at least 75% of their average gross income is from farming, ranching, or silviculture, which now includes agri-tourism, direct-to-consumer sales, and certain equipment sales." The release does not attach a program year to that exemption, so we are not printing one.

The entity change does carry a date. The same release says that "Starting with the 2026 crop year, for payment eligibility purposes, FSA will treat applicable limited liability companies (LLCs) and S-Corporations (S-Corps), and other similar entities, as 'pass through entities,'" so each member who meets the actively engaged in farming criteria helps qualify the entity for expanded payments. Operations structured that way "must file updated farm operating plans with FSA for program year 2026 by Sept. 15, 2026."

Separately, FSA's fact sheet states that a producer is not eligible for ARC or PLC payments if the sum of base acres on all farms in which the producer has an interest is 10 acres or less. That 10-acre rule does not apply to a socially disadvantaged, beginning, veteran or limited resource farmer or rancher.

The 2025 law made up to 30 million additional base acres available nationwide, allocated on a farm's 2019 to 2023 planting history, beginning with the 2026 crop year. Farms keep the base acres they already have; eligible farms may increase them. There is no application: FSA mailed each landowner a Base Allocation Summary from 1 June 2026. If eligible acreage nationwide exceeds the cap, FSA's 26 May 2026 release says "USDA will apply an across-the-board, prorated reduction to all approved new base acres," so an allocation is not a guaranteed figure until it is final.

The window for landowners to respond ran from 1 June 2026 to 31 August 2026 — it closes on the day this post is published. In that window a landowner could correct the acreage history, choose subsequent acreage, opt out of additional base acres, or appeal to the FSA County Committee in writing. FSA's position on silence is direct: "If FSA is not notified, the Base Allocation Summary will be considered accurate and complete." If you did not respond, the summary stands as issued, and what happens next is a question for your county office rather than for us.

The election is still ahead, and its dates are not published. FSA's letter states that "Every farm must make a new program election for 2026 to be eligible for a payment," and in the same letter says "FSA will announce details pertaining to the 2026 program year election and enrollment period at a later date." We are not going to invent a window. For scale, the 2025 election and enrollment period ran 21 January to 15 April 2025 — and for 2025 only, FSA issued the higher of the PLC or ARC-CO payment regardless of the election made, with ARC-IC handled separately. That was a one-year provision. Do not assume it repeats in 2026.

Payments arrive late by design. ARC and PLC payments are issued only after the covered commodity's marketing year ends, and not before 1 October of the year following the program year. FSA says 2025 program year payments will be issued after 1 October 2026. Roughly a year passes between the harvest and the payment.

The two big working-lands conservation programs are run by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. The Economic Research Service describes EQIP as a program that "provides financial assistance to farmers who adopt or install conservation practices on land in agricultural production" — nutrient management, conservation tillage, cover crops, filter strips, irrigation management, livestock facilities, fencing. The Conservation Stewardship Program "supports ongoing and new conservation efforts for producers addressing natural resource concerns on working agricultural and forest lands." Both keep the land in production, which is what separates them from land retirement programs such as CRP, which pays annual rent to retire cropland for 10 to 15 years, and ACEP, which uses long-term or permanent easements.

ERS's FY2025 estimates put EQIP at roughly $1.74 billion, CSP at $839 million, CRP at $2.1 billion including technical assistance, ACEP at $375 million and RCPP at $184 million. ERS also notes that in 2025 the law "repealed unobligated funds originally appropriated in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act and repurposed them as permanent Farm Bill baseline funding beginning in FY2026," which raised budget authority while lowering projected outlays for conservation across FY2025 to FY2034.

One widely repeated figure is wrong for this year. NRCS's National Bulletin 440-26-2, dated 17 December 2025, says of EQIP: "There are no payment limitations in FY 2026; the authority for EQIP payment limitations expired in 2024." It makes the identical statement for CSP. The $450,000 EQIP and $200,000 CSP payment limitations are the 2018 Farm Bill authority, and they still appear on FSA's own payment limitations table — but NRCS's bulletin is the document that governs FY2026. Contract limits are a different thing and they do exist: CSP contract limits for FY2026 are "$300,000 for individuals and entities and $600,000 for joint operations," while contracts obligated before FY2026 stay at $200,000 for a person or legal entity and $400,000 for joint operations and general partnerships. NRCS adds that a participant may not cancel an existing contract solely to apply for a new one under the higher limit.

The same bulletin sets out what changed for FY2026. Because of the lapse in appropriations, NRCS set a single national deadline for the first batching period: "the first batching period for AMA, CSP, and EQIP now has a national deadline of January 15, 2026," which USDA's 15 December 2025 announcement extended to ACEP and to the new Regenerative Pilot Program. For CSP, NRCS is using "a streamlined single sign-up approach," the renewal sign-up option "will not be offered in FY 2026" with renewals evaluated in the general sign-up, the existing activity payment "will be $4,000 per contract each year for new contracts starting in FY 2026," bundles and some structural and infrastructure practices are no longer offered, and the unique 'E' enhancement codes are discontinued. Higher CSP payments remain available for cover crops, advanced grazing management and resource conserving crop rotations. For EQIP, there are only two contract types in FY2026 — "Water Conservation (for applications for Water Management Entities)" and "Conventional (for all other EQIP applications)" — funding for EQIP Conservation Incentive Contracts "will not be allocated," and all FY2026 contracts must be obligated by 30 September 2026. The Regenerative Pilot Program is new and lightly documented; USDA describes it as delivering assistance through EQIP and CSP, and we are not going to describe its terms beyond that.

Mechanically, NRCS is the opposite of RMA. Applications are made on form NRCS-CPA-1200, the Conservation Program Application, and applicants "may access and submit applications through Farmers.gov" or work through the NRCS office at their local USDA Service Center. NRCS describes its programs as continuous sign-up, but money is awarded in batches against ranking dates, so a continuous door does not mean a continuous payment. Unfunded applications are deferred rather than rejected, and the bulletin adds a process "that lets NRCS cancel applications if an unfunded applicant does not respond to the deferral letter within 30 days of receipt of the letter." A deferral letter is a document with a clock on it.

RMA runs on a hard cut-off that varies by crop and county and is published in the actuarial documents. NRCS takes applications continuously and funds them in batches against ranking dates. FSA runs an annual election window plus a scatter of program-specific deadlines. Three different designs, and the same consequence for missing any of them: the choice is settled without you.

As of 31 August 2026, four things are still live. The 1 and 30 September sales closing dates for fall-planted crops, buying 2027 crop year coverage. The 15 September 2026 deadline for LLCs, S-Corps and other qualified pass-through entities to file updated farm operating plans for program year 2026. The 30 September 2026 deadline for NRCS to obligate FY2026 contracts. And the 2026 ARC and PLC election, which FSA says every farm must make to be eligible for a payment, and whose dates had not been announced in any FSA material we could find.

Every claim above is drawn from a primary source and the agency is named in the text — RMA bulletins and news releases, FSA fact sheets, letters, tables and news releases, NRCS National Bulletin 440-26-2, and USDA's Economic Research Service — and nearly every figure is stamped 2025 or 2026 because most of them move. We explain rules; we are not your advisor. On your own base acres, your election, your policy or your contract, the answer comes from FSA, RMA or NRCS at your local USDA Service Center, or from your own crop insurance agent.