USDA Programs
USDA offers a variety of programs. Link to FSA/USDA Click Tab for Programs and Services
Listed below is a sampling of programs offered by USDA. Please view USDA website for a full listing.
ARC/PLC Program
The Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs were authorized by the 2014 and 2018 Farm Bills.
On Nov. 16, 2023, President Biden signed into law H.R. 6363, the Further Continuing Appropriations and Other Extensions Act, 2024 (Pub. L. 118-22), which extended the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (Pub. L. 115-334), more commonly known as the 2018 Farm Bill. This extension now allows authorized programs, including ARC and PLC, to continue through Sept. 30, 2024.
The Agriculture Risk (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs provide financial protections to farmers from substantial drops in crop prices or revenues and are vital economic safety nets for most American farms.
2024 Crop Year Election/Enrollment
The election and enrollment period opened Dec. 18, 2023 and runs through March 15, 2024. Producers can now make or change elections and enroll for 2024 ARC or PLC, providing future protections against market fluctuations.
Conservation Programs
The United States Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency (FSA) oversees a number of voluntary conservation-related programs. These programs work to address a large number of farming and ranching related conservation issues including:
- Drinking water protection
- Reducing soil erosion
- Wildlife habitat preservation
- Preservation and restoration of forests and wetlands
- Aiding farmers whose farms are damaged by natural disasters
FSA accomplishes these goals through the conservation programs listed below.
1. Conservation Reserve Program
The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) pays a yearly rental payment in exchange for farmers removing environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production and planting species that will improve environmental quality.
View the Conservation Reserve Program Page.
Read the CRP State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement (SAFE) fact sheet
2. Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program
The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP), an offshoot of CRP, targets high-priority conservation issues identified by government and non-governmental organizations. Farm land that falls under these conservation issues is removed from production in exchange for annual rental payments.
View the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program page.
3. Emergency Conservation Program
The Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) provides funding and technical assistance for farmers and ranchers to restore farmland damaged by natural disasters and for emergency water conservation measures in severe droughts.
View the Emergency Conservation Program page.
4. Emergency Forest Restoration Program
The Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP), which is very similar to the ECP, provides funding to restore privately owned forests damaged by natural disasters.
View the Emergency Forest Restoration Program page.
5. Farmable Wetlands Program
The Farmable Wetlands Program (FWP) is designed to restore wetlands and wetland buffer zones that are farmed. FWP gives farmers and ranchers annual rental payments in return for restoring wetlands and establishing plant cover.
View the Farmable Wetlands Program page
6. Grassland Reserve Program
The Grassland Reserve Program (GRP) works to prevent grazing and pasture land from being converted into cropland or used for urban development. In return for voluntarily limiting the future development of their land, farmers receive a rental payment.
View the Grassland Reserve Program page.
7. Source Water Protection Program
The Source Water Protection Program (SWPP) is designed to protect surface and ground water used as drinking water by rural residents. The program targets states based on their water quality and population.
View the Source Water Protection page.
USDA offers a variety of programs to help farmers, ranchers, communities, and businesses that have been hard hit by natural disaster events. Below you’ll find available FSA programs; visit farmers.gov for additional USDA programs that can help agricultural producers recover.
Sign up to receive Disaster Assistance Program email updates
Farm Loan Program
The Farm Service Agency offers loans to help farmers and ranchers get the financing they need to start, expand or maintain a family farm.
Use the Loan Assistance Tool to check your eligibility for FSA Loans, discover FSA loan types, learn about FSA Loan requirements, and walk through the easy-to-understand instructions when completing the forms.
FSA Grants & Cooperative Agreements Overview
FSA establishes partnerships through grants and cooperative agreements with a variety of organizations to support farmers and ranchers participating in FSA programs. We also work with organizations working to improve access to land, capital, and markets for producers.
How can FSA’s partners support farmers and ranchers?
Our grantees and cooperators work directly with producers to help them learn about, apply to, and maintain participation in FSA programs. This assistance from our partners is free.
Our partners will also organize outreach events to help producers learn about FSA programs. These events may have a fee to participate.
Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access Program
Overview
USDA launched the Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access (Increasing Land Access) Program to help underserved producers by increasing land, capital, and market access. The program funds cooperative agreements or grants for projects that help move underserved producers from surviving to thriving.
Land access is critical to the success of agriculture. Underserved producers have not received the amount of specialized technical support that would benefit the launch, growth, resilience, and success of their agricultural enterprises. The Increasing Land Access Program is intended to address this problem by increasing access to farm ownership opportunities, increasing access and improving results for those with heirs’ property or fractionated land, increasing access to markets and capital that affect the ability to access land, and increasing land ownership, land succession, and agricultural business planning.
Section 1006 of the American Rescue Plan Act, as amended by Section 22007 of the Inflation Reduction Act, included these provisions for USDA to ensure underserved producers have resources, tools, programs, and technical support they need to succeed.
MIDAS
The Farm Service Agency’s (FSA’s) Modernize and Innovate the Delivery of Agricultural Systems (MIDAS) program is a modernization initiative to provide a secure, long-term, web-based solution to simplify, integrate, and automate the delivery of Farm Programs across the United States.
Deployed in two major phases in April 2013 and December 2014, MIDAS is used each day in nearly 2,200 FSA offices to manage a range of federal assistance programs, which support some five million farms across the country.
Organic Certification Cost Share Program (OCCSP)
OCCSP provides cost share assistance to producers and handlers of agricultural products who are obtaining or renewing their certification under the National Organic Program (NOP). Certified operations may receive up to 75 percent of their certification costs paid during the program year, not to exceed $750 per certification scope. The deadline to apply is October 31, 2024
Eligible OCCSP applicants include any certified organic producers or handlers who have paid organic certification fees to a USDA-accredited certifying agent.
Cost share assistance covers expenses including application fees, inspection costs, fees related to equivalency agreement and arrangement requirements, inspector travel expenses, user fees, sales assessments and postage. OCCSP pays a maximum of $750 per certification category for crops, wild crops, livestock, processing/handling, and state organic program fees (California only).