Agricultural Policy Monitoring and Evaluation 2024

28. United States

Main findings

Support to agriculture

Producer support in the United States averaged 8% of gross receipts in 2021-23, well below the 20% of the mid-1980s and early 2000s, and below the OECD average. Policy reforms beginning in the 1980s progressively reduced the level of support and the prominence of price-based supports in the policy mix. The share of potentially most-distorting transfers was 9% in 2021-23, also below the OECD average and well below peak values. Prices received by farmers in 2021-23 were on average only 1% higher than in world markets, compared to 11% in 2000-02. This gap is mainly due to market price support (MPS) from border protections (including tariff rate quotas) for sugar. Producer prices of most commodities align with border prices, and the value of budgetary transfers directed at specific commodities is usually less than 10% of their gross farm receipts.

While MPS has declined, budgetary support to producers has increased, covering mainly risk-management, crop insurance, and more recently, emergency compensation payments. The counter-cyclical nature of budgetary support links it to market price developments such that periods of high commodity prices (as in 2012-13) see lower levels of support. Domestic commodity prices have been elevated in recent years, lowering overall support despite additional spending on disaster-relief programmes related to drought and other exceptional events.

US domestic food-assistance programmes that support consumers account for nearly half of total US support to agriculture. Expenditures for general services (General Service Support Estimate, GSSE) equalled 2.6% of the value of production in 2021-23, below the OECD average of 3.3%, with the largest component (32%) related to institutional infrastructure for crop insurance. Agricultural knowledge transfer and marketing and promotion are the next largest components.

Total support to agriculture was 0.5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Key recent policy changes

The 2018 US Farm Bill was extended through September 2024 while its replacement continues to be developed.

Ad hoc emergency assistance programmes were provided in 2023 in response to natural disasters, disaster-driven cost increases and market disruptions. This includes retroactive payments for consequences of COVID-19 and crop and forage losses experienced in 2022.

Relief to distressed borrowers with certain USDA loans and financial assistance to farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners who experienced discrimination in USDA farm lending programmes was provided through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022.

New crop insurance products were introduced in 2023, including a Tropical Storm Option for the Hurricane Insurance Protection-Wind Index (HIP-WI) Endorsement, new grapevine and kiwifruit insurance products, a weaned calf risk protection insurance option, and a Controlled Environment crop insurance product.

USDA ended temporary pandemic-related increases in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits known as emergency allotments (EAs) for all states, resuming normal benefit levels as of March 2023.

The National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program, was amended to allow more schools operating in high poverty areas to offer free or reduced priced meals to all students.

Assessment and recommendations

• As US farm policy is evolving, greater attention to the policy design elements that best support sustainable productivity growth should be considered. The United States is already investing strongly in innovation and the environment, but large recent increases come from the Inflation Reduction Act. Putting these investments on a more secure long-term footing will ensure that farm policy supports SPG objectives.

• One way to secure long-term SPG investment is to make more use of capping or reduced payments to large farmers. Reducing the amount of support for those farms that are most able to manage their business risks can help ensure that more resources are available for SPG objectives such as investments in innovation, climate adaptation and environmental sustainability.

• A focus on disaster recovery and insurance is reflected both in expansion of coverage and retroactive compensation to fill gaps in support provided in past years (especially for market disruptions). As insurance programmes become more generous, the risk of adverse selection, moral hazard and fraud become greater. One way to reduce this risk is to make the government share of premiums contingent on the insured’s history of claims. The system of control and enforcement also needs to be proportionate to the potential rewards from misusing the system.

• Support directed at underserved communities has helped to address the needs of relatively small and disadvantaged farmers.1 This approach should be mainstreamed into more USDA programmes to ensure that support reaches those small and non-traditional farmers most in need of assistance. This is especially needed for factors that improve competitiveness and profitability, including farm business development aids such as management training, business planning, improved access to capital and helping facilitate access to food chains.

• Sugar is the last major agricultural commodity receiving market price support. Reforming complex policies such as this is difficult, but making progress on market liberalisation is still worthwhile. Examples of successful reforms of similar programmes in the United States (for example tobacco and peanuts) in the past could serve as models for progress.

Development of support to agriculture

Figure 28.1. United States: Development of support to agriculture

Table 28.1. United States: Estimates of support to agriculture

Million USD

	1986-88	2000-02	2021-23	2021	2022	2023p
Total value of production (at farm gate)	143 469	193 454	488 354	459 737	522 757	482 569
of which: share of MPS commodities (%)	78.31	73.64	81.05	80.56	82.28	80.30
Total value of consumption (at farm gate)	124 148	164 683	397 661	362 120	433 500	397 362
Producer Support Estimate (PSE)	33 947	43 724	42 889	53 017	40 713	34 937
Support based on commodity output	13 725	19 648	2 896	3 676	2 525	2 489
Market price support¹	10 616	12 467	2 379	2 219	2 438	2 479
Positive market price support	10 737	12 467	2 379	2 219	2 438	2 479
Negative market price support	-121	0	0	0	0	0
Payments based on output	3 108	7 181	518	1 457	87	9
Payments based on input use	7 061	7 572	11 519	9 526	11 382	13 650
Based on variable input use	3 697	3 091	2 674	1 894	3 117	3 010
with input constraints	791	403	1 811	1 030	2 252	2 151
Based on fixed capital formation	1 233	361	2 800	1 950	2 109	4 341
with input constraints	1 233	358	2 539	1 855	1 838	3 924
Based on on-farm services	2 131	4 120	6 046	5 683	6 155	6 299
with input constraints	349	677	1 938	1 811	1 936	2 067
Payments based on current A/An/R/I, production required	12 231	5 655	22 614	28 902	22 425	16 514
Based on Receipts / Income	912	2 055	3 266	3 087	2 773	3 939
Based on Area planted / Animal numbers	11 319	3 600	19 347	25 816	19 652	12 575
With input constraints	2 565	1 571	19 347	25 816	19 651	12 575
Payments based on non-current A/An/R/I, production required	0	0	1 009	2 703	324	0
Payments based on non-current A/An/R/I, production not required	338	8 789	2 951	6 295	2 204	355
With variable payment rates	0	3 969	2 951	6 295	2 204	355
with commodity exceptions	0	3 969	2 951	6 295	2 204	355
With fixed payment rates	338	4 819	0	0	0	0
with commodity exceptions	0	4 819	0	0	0	0
Payments based on non-commodity criteria	592	2 061	1 900	1 915	1 854	1 931
Based on long-term resource retirement	592	2 050	1 885	1 892	1 842	1 920
Based on a specific non-commodity output	0	0	0	0	0	0
Based on other non-commodity criteria	0	11	15	23	12	11
Miscellaneous payments	0	0	0	0	0	0
Percentage PSE (%)	20.35	19.46	8.11	10.38	7.26	6.78
Producer NPC (coeff.)	1.10	1.11	1.01	1.01	1.01	1.01
Producer NAC (coeff.)	1.26	1.24	1.09	1.12	1.08	1.07
General Services Support Estimate (GSSE)	3 108	6 164	12 981	11 935	13 508	13 500
Agricultural knowledge and innovation system	1 129	1 805	3 300	3 035	3 102	3 762
Inspection and control	372	685	1 395	1 300	1 391	1 493
Development and maintenance of infrastructure	13	461	4 111	3 463	5 002	3 868
Marketing and promotion	495	957	2 373	2 231	2 260	2 628
Cost of public stockholding	0	107	2	2	4	0
Miscellaneous	1 100	2 149	1 801	1 903	1 750	1 750
Percentage GSSE (% of TSE)	6.59	8.89	10.16	9.14	10.03	11.44
Consumer Support Estimate (CSE)	-1 314	5 191	66 845	60 969	75 286	64 280
Transfers to producers from consumers	-10 074	-12 173	-2 379	-2 219	-2 438	-2 479
Other transfers from consumers	-1 624	-2 061	-2 659	-2 382	-2 794	-2 802
Transfers to consumers from taxpayers	10 089	19 425	71 883	65 570	80 518	69 561
Excess feed cost	294	0	0	0	0	0
Percentage CSE (%)	-1.15	3.57	20.52	20.56	21.33	19.61
Consumer NPC (coeff.)	1.10	1.09	1.01	1.01	1.01	1.01
Consumer NAC (coeff.)	1.01	0.97	0.83	0.83	0.82	0.84
Total Support Estimate (TSE)	47 144	69 314	127 753	130 522	134 739	117 999
Transfers from consumers	11 698	14 234	5 038	4 601	5 232	5 281
Transfers from taxpayers	37 071	57 141	125 375	128 303	132 301	115 520
Budget revenues	-1 624	-2 061	-2 659	-2 382	-2 794	-2 802
Percentage TSE (% of GDP)	0.96	0.65	0.50	0.56	0.52	0.43
Total Budgetary Support Estimate (TBSE)	36 528	56 847	125 375	128 303	132 301	115 520
Percentage TBSE (% of GDP)	0.75	0.54	0.49	0.55	0.51	0.42
GDP deflator (1986-88 = 100)	100	139	219	207	221	230
Exchange rate (national currency per USD)	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00

Note: p: provisional. NPC: Nominal Protection Coefficient. NAC: Nominal Assistance Coefficient. A/An/R/I: Area planted/Animal numbers/Receipts/Income. 1. Market Price Support (MPS) is net of producer levies and excess feed cost. MPS commodities for the United States are: wheat, maize, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, cotton, rice, soybean, sugar, milk, beef and veal, sheep meat, wool, pig meat, poultry and eggs.

Source: OECD (2024), “Producer and Consumer Support Estimates”, OECD Agricultural policy monitoring (database), https://data-explorer.oecd.org/.

Policy landscape

Main policy instruments

The Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018 (the 2018 Farm Bill) provides the basic legislation governing farm programmes for 2019 to 2023 (the legislation was extended in late 2023 to cover through September 2024). The 12 titles of the 2018 Farm Bill authorise policies for commodity programmes, conservation on agricultural land, agricultural trade promotion, international food aid, nutrition programmes, farm credit, rural development, agricultural research, forestry on private lands, energy, horticulture and organic agriculture, and crop insurance. About 75% of budgetary spending under the 2018 Farm Bill is for programmes in the Nutrition title – primarily the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme (SNAP) – with farm programmes accounting for the remainder. Of the farm programmes, crop insurance is the largest at around 9% of total expenditures, followed by commodities and conservation at 7% each.

The primary crop commodity programmes under the 2018 Farm Bill include programmes that make payments to producers with historical base acres2 of programme crops (wheat, feed grains, rice, oilseeds, peanuts, pulses and seed cotton) when prices fall below minimums set out in the legislation or when crop revenue is low relative to recent levels. Producers are not required to produce the covered commodity to receive payments on their historical base. Price Loss Coverage (PLC), a counter-cyclical price programme, makes a payment when market prices for covered crops fall below effective reference prices.3 Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC), a revenue-based programme, makes a payment when actual revenue at the county level falls below rolling average benchmark revenues. For both programmes, payments are made on 85% of base acres. Participating producers were required to choose between the PLC and ARC programmes4 on a commodity-by-commodity basis for 2019 and 2020, then annually for each year for 2021-23.

The crop insurance programme offers coverage options for both yield and revenue losses. Traditional crop insurance offers subsidised crop insurance to producers who purchase a policy to protect against losses in yield, crop revenue, or whole farm revenue. In addition, the Supplementary Coverage Option (SCO) and Stacked Income Protection Plan (STAX) offer area-based insurance coverage, SCO in combination with traditional crop insurance policies and STAX for upland cotton producers.

Marketing assistance loans are available for wheat, feed grains, upland cotton, rice, oilseeds, pulses, wool, mohair and honey. These loans provide cash flow at harvest when prices are typically lower, allowing farmers to delay sales until market conditions improve. These are non-recourse loans that can be repaid at market prices when those fall below the loan rate, although market prices for most commodities have been above loan rates in recent years.

For dairy producers, the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) programme, insures a producer-elected margin-level between a nationally defined milk price and feed costs for a premium, with payments made on enrolled historical milk production. Producers may participate in both DMC and dairy livestock insurance programmes. Under the Milk Donation Reimbursement Programme (MDP) fluid milk producers with pre-approved plans may be reimbursed for costs incurred in donating fluid beverage milk to low-income groups.

Sugar is supported by a tariff rate quota (TRQ), together with provisions for non-recourse loans (which are not eligible for the repayment provisions discussed above) and marketing allotments. TRQs are in place for dairy, beef and some other products. However, US agricultural tariffs are generally low, at 4.5% on average in 2021.

Federal agri-environmental programmes focus on land retirement, easements restricting land use options and measures to encourage crop and livestock producers to adopt practices that reduce environmental pressures on working land (cropland and grazing land in production). Working land programmes include the Environmental Quality Incentives Programme (EQIP) and the Conservation Stewardship Programme (CSP). Land retirement and easement programmes include the Agricultural Conservation Easement Programme (ACEP) and the Conservation Reserve Programme (CRP). The Regional Conservation Partnership Programme offers options for regional or watershed-based conservation efforts that may combine both land retirement, easements, and working lands programmes. Production of ethanol and other biofuels is supported mainly in the form of mandated blending for fuel use, and loan and grant programmes. Eligibility for most federal commodity programme payments, including crop insurance premium subsidies, is subject to recipients having established an individual farm-based conservation plan to protect highly erodible cropland and wetlands.

Other farm programmes include direct and guaranteed loans (including microloans) for farmland purchase and for operating credit, designed to assist producers who face difficulty obtaining credit in the private market, particularly beginning, military veteran and socially disadvantaged farmers. Farm Bill programmes also support public agricultural research and technical assistance, including programmes targeted to specialty crops; organic production; pest and disease prevention; the promotion of sustainable farming practices; and standing disaster programmes for livestock, forage, and trees, bushes and vines to help producers cope with production, financial and physical losses related to or caused by natural disasters.

Innovation for sustainable productivity growth

The United States promotes a holistic approach to SPG in which potential negative externalities of productivity growth are identified and addressed, with the objective of supporting the transition to more sustainable, resilient, and inclusive food systems. USDA’s working definition of sustainable agricultural productivity growth is “agricultural productivity growth that advances social, environmental, and economic development objectives to meet the food and nutrition needs of current and future generations.”

USDA’s SPG policies and programmes can be grouped into three broad areas: public research, development, and dissemination of innovative technologies and approaches; incentivisation of private-sector innovation; and fostering an enabling environment.

Public research, development, and dissemination of innovative technologies and approaches

The United States funds a wide variety of R&D and dissemination programmes aimed at improving sustainable agricultural productivity growth. This includes support for global platforms to share information about innovative new technologies and approaches, best practices, and lessons learned. Examples of USDA agencies/programmes that spearhead this research and its dissemination include:

• USDA, Agricultural Research Service (ARS). As the Department’s principal in-house research agency, USDA, ARS has 2 000 scientists and post docs; over 90 research locations including overseas laboratories; and an annual budget of about USD 1.7 billion. The National Program on Sustainable Agricultural Systems is the lead programme area in ARS covering SPG. The goal of this programme is “diversified agricultural systems that sustain and improve productivity, profitability, ecosystem health, and human well-being.” The programme is built around three components: building agroecosystems for intensive, resilient production via GxExM (the interaction of genetics with environment and management); increasing the efficiency of agroecosystems; and achieving agroecosystem potential. USDA, ARS is currently supporting 660 research projects.

• USDA, National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) provides leadership and funding for programmes that advance agriculture-related sciences. The agency invests in and supports initiatives that ensure the long-term viability of agriculture. USDA, NIFA collaborates with leading scientists, policymakers, experts, and educators in organisations throughout the world to find innovative solutions to the most pressing local and global problems. Through its research area on sustainable agricultural production systems, USDA, NIFA invests in science and technology development to improve the nation’s ability to achieve food security through increased production efficiencies and profitability while enhancing environmental stewardship in a changing climate.

• Cooperative Extension System (CES) is operated through the nation’s Land-Grant University System in partnership with the federal, state, and local governments. As the federal partner, USDA, NIFA develops methods to address national priorities (including SPG), funds and awards grants, and provides programme leadership to the CES. CES maintains offices in or near most of the nation’s approximately 3 000 counties, ensuring that technical assistance is available to all producers and is carried out in the context of local conditions.

• Conservation Technical Assistance (CTA) and USDA Conservation Programmes provide farmers, ranchers and forestland owners with the knowledge and tools they need to conserve, maintain, and restore the natural resources on their lands and improve the health of their operations for the future. USDA, NRCS provides personalised advice and information to help producers make informed decisions regarding the implementation of conservation practices. CTA advisors also help producers to develop a conservation plan, outlining suggested conservation practices that can help producers to reach their production and conservation goals. Producers can also apply for financial assistance to implement or maintain conservation practices through the portfolio of USDA conservation programmes. USDA conservation programmes (such as the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, Conservation Reserve Program, Conservation Stewardship Program, Environmental Quality Incentives Program, and Regional Conservation Partnership Program) include their own technical assistance components to ensure that producers can successfully implement conservation practices in line with individual farm conditions and best practices.

• USDA Climate Hubs. Ten regional Climate Hubs are led and hosted by USDA, ARS and the USDA Forest Service (FS), with contributions from many agencies including the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Farm Service Agency (FSA), and the Risk Management Agency (RMA). The Climate Hubs link USDA research and programme agencies in their regional delivery of timely and authoritative tools and information to agricultural producers and professionals.

• USDA’s International Climate Hub is a platform to share research, tools, collaborative efforts, and best practices on a global scale to improve the world’s ability to adapt to climate change and mitigate its impacts. Sharing best practices and research, including those from international coalitions and research consortia, strengthens efforts to find solutions to global climate challenges, improve forest conservation, management, and restoration, and make agricultural production more efficient and productive everywhere.

Incentivising private sector actors to innovate and invest in sustainable productivity growth

To directly incentivise private sector investment in SPG, USDA has pursued a number of approaches, including targeted challenges, competitions, and grants. The use of prizes and challenges is a recent and growing complement to grants to stimulate private R&D. Legislation over the past few decades has promoted the use of prize competitions in the United States and USDA has employed innovation challenges to pursue goals related to sustainable agriculture.

• Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities. Through this grant programme, USDA is investing more than USD 3.1 billion for 141 projects. Selected projects will provide technical and financial assistance to producers to implement climate-smart production practices on a voluntary basis on working lands; pilot innovative and cost-effective methods for quantification, monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas benefits; and develop markets and promote the resulting climate-smart commodities. The initiative is expected to reach more than 60 000 farms affecting more than 25 million acres (10.1 million ha) of working land and eventually sequestering more than 60 million metric tonnes of CO₂.

• USDA, NRCS’s Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) programme is a competition programme that supports the development of new tools, approaches, practices, and technologies to further natural resource conservation on private lands. CIG partners aim to address the country’s water quality, air quality, soil health, and wildlife habitat challenges, all while improving agricultural operations. CIG offers three funding opportunities annually, one focused on national priorities, one focused on individual state priorities, and one specifically targeted to on-farm innovation trials to support more widespread adoption and evaluation of innovative conservation approaches in partnership with agricultural producers.

• Next Gen Fertilizer Challenges. USDA, along with the US Environmental Protection Agency and private sector partners, recently hosted two challenges focused on stimulating innovation in enhanced efficiency fertilisers (EEF) and other next generation product technology innovations to reduce the impacts from row crop agriculture on the environment while maintaining or increasing agricultural productivity and profitability. The first challenge, the “EEFs: Environmental and Agronomic Challenge” focused on identifying existing EEFs currently on or near-market that meet or exceed certain environmental and agro-economic criteria. The second, the “Next Gen Fertilizer Innovations Challenge,” focused on identifying concepts for novel technologies for fertilisers and other product technology innovations that can reduce the environmental effects from agriculture while maintaining or increasing crop yields.

• Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SARE) funds farmer-driven grants and grassroots education programmes resulting in climate-smart solutions for farms and ranches in every state and island protectorate. In the last 35 years, with funding from USDA, NIFA, SARE has provided USD 380 million in grant funding for nearly 8 400 projects serving farmers, growers, and rural communities.

• Foundation for Food & Agricultural Research (FFAR) builds collaborative public-private partnerships connecting funders, researchers, and farmers. FFAR’s work focuses on six “Challenge Areas” (Soil Health, Sustainable Water Management, Next Generation Crops, Advanced Animal Systems, Urban Food Systems, and Health-Agriculture Nexus), with “Forging the Innovation Pathway to Sustainability” highlighted as a key theme across all Challenge Areas.

Fostering an enabling environment

An enabling environment ensures that producers and policy makers have the information, tools and opportunities to innovate for sustainable productivity growth. Examples of actions to foster an enabling environment include:

• GHG Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MMRV) for Agriculture and Forestry. USDA invests USD 300 million over eight years (funded through the Inflation Reduction Act) to support GHG MMRV efforts. These funds support a comprehensive strategy to improve data, models, and tools needed for quantifying the impact of conservation practices on GHG emissions and carbon sequestration.

• USDA, Economic Research Service’s (ERS) International Agricultural Productivity data series provides globally comparable data that can be used to support policy decisions related to sustainable productivity growth. First published in 2013 and updated annually, the current series covers the period from 1961 to 2021. The series provides national and regional indices of total agricultural outputs, inputs, and total factor productivity (TFP). Output includes the production volume of 200 crop, animal, and aquaculture commodities; inputs include land, labour, capital, and materials.

• Support for broadband infrastructure, including through ReConnect. USDA’s ReConnect Program offers loans, grants, and loan-grant combinations to facilitate broadband deployment in areas of rural America that currently do not have sufficient access to broadband. The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act allocated nearly USD 2 billion in additional funding for ReConnect.

• The Working Lands Climate Corps provides technical skills training, education awards, and career pathway opportunities for young people. They conduct outreach and education around the availability of climate-smart agriculture assistance and support conservation technical assistance and resilient planning activities for working farms and ranches. The Working Lands Climate Corps is part of the American Climate Corps, a workforce training and service initiative that gives young people access to the skills-based training needed for careers in the clean energy and climate resilience economy.

• USDA Rural Development’s Agriculture Innovation Centers programme establishes and operates centres that provide technical and business development assistance to agricultural producers seeking to engage in developing and marketing of value-added agricultural products. The Agriculture Innovation Centers offer a variety of services, including feasibility studies and business plans, engineering services, scale production assessments, systems development concept testing, feasibility and cost analysis, product taste-testing, demographic and other types of consumer analysis, production analysis, and evaluation of packaging and labelling options.

Recent policy developments

Domestic policy developments in 2023-24

Disaster assistance and direct income payments

In 2023, USDA announced several emergency relief programmes, including several that make payments retroactively based on losses experienced in 2022:

• The Emergency Relief Program 2022 (ERP 2022) provides compensation to eligible crop producers for crop or tree losses experienced in 2022. All producers receiving ERP 2022 payments must purchase crop insurance or NAP coverage where crop insurance is not available for the next two available crop years.

• The Emergency Livestock Relief Program 2022 provides payments to producers who faced increased supplemental feed costs because of forage losses due to a qualifying drought or wildfire in calendar year 2022, using data already submitted to USDA, FSA through the Livestock Forage Program.

• The Emergency Grain Storage Facility Assistance Program provided financial assistance to grain producers to assist with marketing disruptions and limited storage capacity caused by eligible disaster events that damaged or destroyed local commercial grain facilities in affected counties between 1 December 2021 and 1 August 2022. The assistance could be used to build temporary or permanent on-farm grain storage for a producer’s own use or a common facility for shared use among a group of producers; to restore existing storage; or to purchase drying and handling equipment needed for grain storage.

• The Rice Production Program provided financial assistance to rice producers affected by higher production costs during the 2022 crop year and was based on 2022 acreage (both planted and prevent plant).

• The Milk Loss Program provided financial assistance to eligible dairy operations for milk that was dumped or removed without compensation from the commercial milk market due to qualifying weather events, such as power outages or impassable roads, that inhibited the delivery of milk or the storage of milk, for the 2020, 2021, and 2022 calendar years.

USDA launched several programmes in 2023 aimed at financial impacts that producers experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic and made additional payments under existing pandemic-related programmes.

• The launch of the Pandemic Assistance Revenue Program, which provided support for eligible producers of agricultural commodities who suffered at least a 15% decrease in allowable gross revenue for the 2020 calendar year compared to either the 2018 or 2019 calendar year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Revisions to the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) – most prominently, USDA issued an additional CFAP 2 payment to underserved farmers and ranchers, equal to 15% of a producer’s previous CFAP 2 payment.

• A second round of assistance under the Pandemic Market Volatility Assistance Program, offering nearly USD 100 million in additional resources to expand eligibility to dairy farmers with between 5 million and 9 million pounds (2.3-4.1 million kg) of fluid milk sales from July through December 2020.

Finance and farm credit

Assistance in 2023 under Section 22006 of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) included the availability of cash flow-based assistance, opportunities for FSA direct loan borrowers to receive assistance if they took extraordinary measures to keep their loans current, the provision of automatic financial assistance to qualifying distressed guaranteed loan borrowers and assistance for borrowers of Emergency Loans.

In August 2023, a pilot programme was launched to expedite the processing of direct Operating Loans (OL) and Farm Ownership Loans (FO) to qualified farmers and ranchers, called the Application Fast Track (AFT) Program. The programme provides an accelerated underwriting process using financial data to benchmark and identify applicants least likely to default and is expected to result in significant time savings in loan approvals. AFT will expand to all USDA service centre locations nationwide from January 2024 through September 2024.

Crop insurance and risk management

New crop insurance products were launched in 2023, including:

• A new Tropical Storm Option expands coverage under the Hurricane Insurance Protection-Wind Index (HIP-WI) Endorsement to certain strong weather systems not categorised as hurricanes. The HIP-WI endorsement normally covers a portion of the deductible of an underlying insurance policy when a producer’s county or an adjacent county is hit with hurricane-force winds from a named hurricane. The tropical storm option is available in selected counties in 21 eastern and southern US states.

• The new Grapevine insurance programme will provide coverage for loss of grafted vines caused by natural perils and complement the Grape crop insurance programme that covers fruit growing on the vine. The new insurance programme is classified as a “mortality policy”, paying losses when the vine is dead or so badly damaged that it will not recover in the following 12 months. The programme covers freeze, fire, hail, flood, and failure of the irrigation water supply caused by an unavoidable, naturally occurring event, and will be available in selected counties in California, Idaho, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington for the 2024 crop year.

• A new kiwifruit insurance product will provide coverage against yield losses for fresh varieties of commercially grown kiwifruit under irrigated practices. The new policy is available in 12 counties in California beginning in the 2024 crop year.

• A new Weaned Calf Risk Protection insurance option for livestock producers was made available beginning in 2024. This policy offers Actual Production History coverage for beef cow-calf producers to insure revenue from their spring calving operations. The product provides coverage for a decline in price and loss of yield due to a decrease of overall weaning weight like revenue coverage offered for crops. The product will be available in Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Texas.

• A new crop insurance product was launched for producers who use controlled environments in their operations, which will provide coverage against plant diseases subject to federal or state destruction orders. The product offers coverage for all controlled environment plants, including cuttings, seedlings, and tissue culture, and is available in select counties in 25 states beginning in the 2024 crop year.

The Margin Protection insurance plan for corn and soybean producers was expanded to more than 1 000 additional counties for the 2024 crop year. Margin protection plans protect against decreases in margin caused by reduced county yields, reduced commodity prices or any combination of these issues.

Organic agriculture

In 2023, there was new rulemaking related to organic agriculture, and new initiatives were provided to support organic agriculture and producers transitioning to organic production. In January, the Strengthening Organic Enforcement Final Rule was published, which amends the USDA organic regulations to reduce fraud in the organic marketplace. The amendments strengthen oversight of organic producers, handlers, and certifiers, improving farm to market traceability, and clarifying USDA’s authority to enforce organic trade. Then in October, the Organic Livestock and Poultry Standards (OLPS) final rule was published, which amends the USDA organic regulations related to livestock and poultry production by adding new provisions for livestock handling and transport, slaughter, and avian (poultry) living conditions; and expands and clarifies existing requirements covering livestock care and production practices and non-avian living conditions. The new rule is effective as of 2 January 2024, and all operations (with some exceptions) must comply with the requirements of the rule by 2 January 2025.

In May 2023, USDA launched the Organic Market Development Grants programme, which made available up to USD 75 million in competitive grants to support the development of new and expanded organic markets, with awards ranging from USD 10 000 to USD 3 million. The programme focuses on building and expanding capacity for certified organic production, aggregation, processing, manufacturing, storing, transporting, wholesaling, distribution and development of consumer markets.

The Organic Dairy Marketing Assistance Program was also launched in May to assist small organic dairy operations with projected marketing costs for 2023. Up to USD 104 million from the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) was made available for the programme. Operations that produce organic milk from dairy cows, dairy goats, or dairy sheep were eligible for payment on up to 5 million pounds (2.27 million kg) of organic milk.

Food systems

In May 2023, USDA announced the launch of the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure (RFSI) Program, which will be carried out through cooperative agreements with each US State and Territory to develop and administer co-ordinated initiatives to build resilience across the middle-of-the-food-supply-chain in their state. Funds will support expanded capacity for aggregation, processing, manufacturing, storing, transporting, wholesaling, and distribution of locally- and regionally-produced food products.

The Farmer Seed Liaison initiative was established in July 2023 in line with the recommendations of a report on fair competition and innovation in seed and other agricultural input markets. This initiative includes establishing a point of contact within USDA to help those who work with seeds to navigate this system, launching a new web resource to simplify access to US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) pending docket of plant patents and plant breeding-related utility patents and creating a new senior-level Chief Competition Officer position in the AMS Administrator’s office.

A final rule on Transparency in Poultry Grower Contracting and Tournaments was published in November 2023. This rule revises the regulations under the 1921 Packers and Stockyards Act to promote transparency in poultry production contracting. The rule requires live poultry dealers to disclose information to broiler chicken growers, including an estimated range of financial returns growers in the same area received in recent years, by housing type, so that growers can understand what to expect from their business relationship with live poultry dealers. The rule took effect on 12 February 2024.

USDA opened 17 new Urban Service Centers and 10 new urban county committees in 2023 as part of the department’s efforts to support urban agriculture. The Urban Service Centers will help to better serve urban farmers and will be staffed by USDA, Farm Service Agency (FSA) and USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) employees. The centres will offer farm loans, conservation assistance, disaster assistance, and risk management programmes. The new county committees join the 17 established urban county committees in working to encourage and promote urban, indoor, and other emerging agricultural production practices and provide farmer input on USDA, FSA programmes.

The Indigenous Animals Harvesting and Meat Processing Grant Program (IAG) was launched in April 2023. Grants under the programme support traditional harvesting methods and community animal protein processing operations. Up to USD 50 million in grants is available, with no minimum or maximum funding limit on grants, and no cost share or matching funds required. Eligible indigenous species include bison, reindeer, game meat, or seafood, and applicants can also propose activities related to meat, poultry, or fish regulated by USDA, Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).

April also saw the launch of the Local Meat Capacity Grant (Local MCap) programme. This programme provides up to USD 75 million in grants to fund projects that build resilience in the meat and poultry supply chain, targeting support to meat and poultry processors and rendering facilities with smaller-scale projects.

Nutrition

A pilot Nutrition Hub was launched under the ASCEND for Better Health Initiative, in partnership with Southern University (a Historically Black, 1890 Land-Grant University in Louisiana) to provide science-based, nutrition-related information at the community level, particularly in underserved communities disproportionately impacted by diet-related chronic diseases. The Hub’s objectives include developing and sharing science-based nutrition information and connecting communities with relevant programmes; developing relationships and partnerships with organisations serving African American communities and defining community food and nutrition needs and opportunities; fostering research and training opportunities in human nutrition, particularly in underserved and underrepresented communities; and building current and future workforce capacity to enhance collaborations between researchers and those on the front lines of community nutrition and health.

Several activities also took place throughout 2023 as part of the Healthy Meals Incentive Initiative, including grants to showcase schools implementing successful strategies for serving healthy, appealing meals; School Food System Transformation Challenge Sub-grants to support partnerships between school districts and food producers, suppliers, distributors, or other community partners; and new sub-grants launched in co-operation with Action for Healthy Kids for small or rural school food authorities to improve the nutritional quality of their meals and modernise their operations.

Temporary pandemic-related increases in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits known as emergency allotments (EAs) ended for all states at the end of February 2023, with normal benefit levels resuming in March 2023. EAs began in March 2020 to boost benefits to all SNAP households in response to the financial hardships of the pandemic.

In August 2023, USDA, Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) published its final Child Nutrition Program Integrity Rule. This strengthened administrative oversight and operational performance of the Child Nutrition Programs, including for fines, prohibitions on participation of any terminated entity or individual in any Child Nutrition Program, reviews of Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) institutions and additional State agency funding for audits of CACFP institutions.

In September 2023, Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) regulations for schools participating in the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program were revised. CEP allows schools operating in high poverty areas to offer free or reduced priced meals to all students without collecting household income eligibility applications. The minimum percentage of enrolled students who are certified for free school meals without submitting a household application was lowered from 40% to 25%. This expansion allows an estimated 3 000 more school districts in high-need areas the option to serve breakfast and lunch to all students at no cost.

Resources and environmental measures

In January 2023, the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) was amended to allow land owned or controlled by the United States or individual States to be eligible for cost share assistance under ECP. This will allow producers who lease Federal or State land the opportunity to participate in ECP.

The Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) and the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) were simplified. Changes to RCPP included:

• simplifying and reducing the number of agreements

• reducing lengthy RCPP easement transactions

• improving the RCPP portal

• offering consistent guidance and training for employees and partners

• simplifying the Technical Assistance Structure

• improving the conservation desktop

• simplifying the partner reimbursement process.

Changes to ACEP included updating processes around appraisals, land surveys, and certifying eligible entities who help USDA, NRCS and producers enrol land into easements.

In June 2023, the Working Lands for Wildlife (WLFW) conservation effort was expanded. The Conservation Reserve Program was incorporated into three of the existing WLFW frameworks, four new frameworks were developed to be released in 2024-25, and funding was increased for WLFW science and co‑ordination capacity through partnerships.

In February 2023, three new priority areas were added to the joint USDA, NRCS-Department of the Interior WaterSMART Initiative. New priority areas include California’s Madera Irrigation District Area, Hawaii’s Kohala Watershed Partnership Area, and Washington’s Quincy Columbia Basin Irrigation District West Canal Area. The initiative helps farmers and ranchers to conserve water and build drought resilience in their communities. These investments complement projects led by irrigation districts, water suppliers and other organisations receiving WaterSMART programme funds from the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation.

Policies to facilitate climate change mitigation or adaptation in agriculture

In conjunction with the release of the Federal Strategy to Advance Greenhouse Gas Measurement and Monitoring for the Agriculture and Forest Sectors, USD 300 million over eight years was budgeted to improve measurement (including modelling strategies), monitoring, reporting, and verification of greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration in climate-smart agriculture and forestry. Funding for this initiative comes from the 2022 IRA.

The USDA International Climate Hub website was launched in May 2023 at the US-hosted AIM for Climate Summit. The International Climate Hub is a platform to share research, tools, collaborative efforts, and best practices on a global scale to improve the world’s ability to adapt to climate change and mitigate its impacts. The website includes tools such as the COMET-Planner Global Assessment Tool, which will enable land managers around the world to estimate the current and potential greenhouse gas mitigation and carbon sequestration benefits of common agricultural conservation practices.

Other polices

The Discrimination Financial Assistance Program (DFAP) opened for applications in July 2023 with a USD 2.2 billion budget. DFAP provides financial assistance to farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners who experienced discrimination in USDA farm lending programmes prior to 2021.5 Both farmers who experienced discrimination in USDA farm loan programmes prior to 2021 or those who are currently debtors with USDA farm loan debt that was the subject of USDA discrimination that occurred prior to 1 January 2021, are eligible for assistance.

In May 2023, USDA opened a new National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan, Kansas. The facility will allow scientists to study and diagnose critical animal diseases. Activities to be carried out at the facility include research on emerging high-consequence animal diseases; development of countermeasures such as vaccines and antivirals; animal disease prevention, surveillance, diagnosis and response; management of two vaccine banks; and training of state and federal veterinarians to recognise livestock diseases.

Trade policy developments in 2023-24

In January 2023, the United States and the European Union signed the US-EU Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) Agreement. The agreement is an update of an existing agreement following the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union in 2021. The new TRQ allocations are based on the historic pattern of agricultural exports to the 27 EU Member States.

In June 2023 the United States and India agreed to terminate six outstanding disputes at the WTO, and India agreed to remove retaliatory tariffs on certain US products, including chickpeas, lentils, almonds, walnuts, and apples. In September 2023, the United States and India agreed to resolve their last outstanding WTO dispute, and India agreed to reduce MFN tariffs on certain agricultural products –specifically fresh, frozen, dried, and processed cranberries and blueberries, and frozen turkey.

In November 2023 the Agricultural Trade Promotion (ATP) Program regulation was amended to implement the new Regional Agricultural Trade Promotion Program (RAPP). RAPP will use funds from the Commodity Credit Corporation to provide cost share assistance to eligible organisations that conduct market promotion activities (either generic or brand promotion), including activities to address existing or potential non-tariff barriers to trade, or to promote US agricultural commodities in certain foreign markets, with a focus on emerging markets in Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

A second dispute settlement panel was established under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) regarding Canada’s dairy TRQ allocation measures in 2023. The United States challenged Canada’s revised dairy TRQ allocation measures. This second request followed a December 2021 USMCA dispute panel report, which found Canada’s dairy TRQ allocation measure to be inconsistent with Canada’s USMCA obligations. While Canada introduced changes to its TRQ allocation measures to comply with the 2021 ruling, the United States challenged Canada’s revised TRQ allocation measures as inconsistent with Canada’s obligations under the USMCA. In November, the second panel ruled in a 2-1 decision that Canada’s measures do not breach USMCA commitments that were cited in the US challenge.

The United States also requested the establishment of a USMCA dispute settlement panel to examine certain Mexican measures concerning products of agricultural biotechnology. The dispute concerns Mexico’s decree banning the use of biotech corn in tortillas or dough, and the instruction to Mexican government agencies to gradually substitute the use of biotech corn in all products for human consumption and for animal feed.

Policy context

Key economic and agricultural statistics

The United States is the world’s second largest economy by GDP in PPPs and the third largest country by land area and population. US GDP per capita is among the highest in the world, more than three times the average of the countries included in this report (Table 28.2). Primary agriculture accounts for a small part of the economy – around 1% of GDP and 1.5% of employment – but agro-food accounts for almost 12% of total exports. The US agricultural sector benefits from a large domestic consumer market, as well as abundant arable and pasture land and diverse climatic conditions that support the production of a wide range of commodities. Crops represent 67% of the value of total agricultural production. Key industries include grains (maize and wheat), oilseeds (soybeans), cotton, cattle, dairy, poultry and fruits and vegetables.

Table 28.2. United States: Contextual indicators

	United States		International comparison
	2000*	2022*	2000*	2022*
Economic context			Share in total of all countries
GDP (billion USD in PPPs)	10 251	25 440	25.6%	18.6%
Population (million)	282	333	6.6%	6.3%
Land area (thousand km2)	9 162	9 147	11.2%	11.1%
Agricultural area (AA) (thousand ha)	414 399	405 810	13.9%	13.9%
			All countries1
Population density (inhabitants/km2)	31	36	52	64
GDP per capita (USD in PPPs)	36 300	76 291	9 363	25 965
Trade as % of GDP	9.4	9.9	12.3	16.6
Agriculture in the economy			All countries1
Agriculture in GDP (%)	1.2	1.0	2.9	3.8
Agriculture share in employment (%)	1.8	1.4	-	-
Agro-food exports (% of total exports)	7.8	11.1	6.4	8.0
Agro-food imports (% of total imports)	3.5	6.1	5.8	6.9
Characteristics of the agricultural sector			All countries1
Crop in total agricultural production (%)	55	67	-	-
Livestock in total agricultural production (%)	45	33	-	-
Share of arable land in AA (%)	42	39	32	34

Note: *or closest available year.

1. Average of all countries covered in this report.

Sources: OECD statistical databases; International Labour Organization (ILO); UN Comtrade; World Bank, WDI; FAO database and national data.

The pace of GDP growth was faster than expected in 2023, reflecting both strong household and government consumption growth, and stronger-than-expected capital formation. Estimates of consumer spending thus far in the first quarter of 2024 point to continued momentum. Core inflation steadily moderated after peaking in 2022 and was near 2% in the second half of 2023, though it has increased at an annualised rate above 3% in the first quarter of 2024. The unemployment rate remains at historic lows as the pace of job creation has been strong since the end of the pandemic era (Figure 28.4).

The United States is the world’s second largest agricultural trader, after the European Union. US agricultural exports and imports increased significantly over the last 25 years (Figure 28.5, top panel). The leading US agricultural exports are grains and feeds, soybeans, livestock products, tree nuts, fruits, vegetables, and other horticultural products. The leading US imports are horticultural and tropical products. Canada, Mexico, the European Union, and East Asia are major US trade partners.6

The commodities with the highest export share (whose export shares account for 40% or more of their total market value) include fruits and tree nuts, oilseeds, and food grains such as rice and wheat. The United States tends to export a higher share of primary products than processed products. Primary products include food grains such as rice and wheat, oilseeds, and tree nuts such as almonds. The United States exports a lower share of processed products, such as sweeteners, bakery products, and dairy products (Figure 28.5, bottom panel). The US share of agricultural consumption sourced from imports tends to be higher for higher-value agricultural product groups. Sweeteners, and processed sugar, and confections are groups of products where the United States is reliant on imports. Fruits, nuts, and vegetables are also frequently imported. The United States tends to have a lower reliance on imports for unprocessed commodities such as feed grains, livestock, and oilseeds. 

TFP growth has been a robust driver of productivity increases in the modern era, averaging 1.5% per year since 1948, a rate that was maintained through the 1991-2000 decade. However, TFP growth has slowed and is now essentially zero in the most recently estimated period of 2012-21 (Table 28.3). The slowdown may stem from agriculture-specific factors, such as stagnating levels of public research and development expenditure. It may also be influenced by broader factors, such as slowing technological progress in other domains and a general tendency for innovation to get harder. However, slowing progress in agriculture may simply be following a slowdown in innovation across the wider non-farm economy (Clancy, 2023[1]). Despite the slowdown in TFP, growth in primary factors (land, labour, capital) and other farm inputs has kept output growth relatively robust, at about 1.3% over the last decade (Figure 28.6).

The US environmental situation is largely similar to the OECD as a whole, as measured by main environmental indicators (Table 28.3). Nutrient balances of nitrogen and phosphorus have improved since 2000, with phosphorus now nearly in balance. Water stress is reducing as well, though some regions are vulnerable to shortages. Conversely, agricultural GHG emissions reductions have lagged that of the overall economy, resulting in the agriculture share of emissions increasing from 7.7% of the total in 2000 to 9.4% in 2022.

Table 28.3. United States: Productivity and environmental indicators

	United States		International comparison
	1991-2000	2012-2021	1991-2000	2012-2021
			World
TFP annual growth rate (%)	1.5%	0.0%	1.7%	1.1%
			OECD average
Environmental indicators	2000*	2022*	2000*	2022*
Nitrogen balance, kg/ha	34.4	24.5	32.1	28.2
Phosphorus balance, kg/ha	2.8	0.9	3.3	2.3
Agriculture share of total energy use (%)	0.9	1.2	1.7	2.0
Agriculture share of GHG emissions (%)	7.7	9.4	8.7	10.1
Share of irrigated land in AA (%)	5.3	5.6	-	-
Share of agriculture in water abstractions (%)	39.7	45.6	47.0	49.5
Water stress indicator	19.5	15.6	8.7	..

Note: * or closest available year.

Sources: USDA Economic Research Service, Agricultural Productivity database; OECD statistical databases; FAO database and national data.

Historical trends in agricultural policies

The US Congress passes legislation that sets national agriculture, nutrition, conservation, and forestry policy, commonly referred to as the “Farm Bill”. The Farm Bill is an omnibus bill that is renewed on a regular basis, about every five years. Since 1933, the United States has passed 18 farm bills, the most recent being the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018.

Historically, the commodity support component of Farm Bills focused on stabilising and boosting farm income to aid economic recovery and development during the Depression and post-war eras through price and income support for a specified set of commodities, including but not limited to corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, rice, peanuts, dairy, and sugar (OECD, 2011[2]). Over time, Farm Bills expanded in scope: the 1973 Farm Bill first included a nutrition title while subsequent farm bills added titles on policy areas such as agricultural trade, farm credit, rural development and crop insurance. The 1985 Farm Bill added conservation provisions; the 1990 Farm Bill, organic agriculture; the 1996 Farm Bill, agricultural research; the 2002 Farm Bill, bioenergy; and the 2008 Farm Bill, horticulture and local food systems (Congressional Research Service, 2019[3]).

Agricultural policy reform in the United States has been characterised by a significant shift towards less production- and trade-distorting forms of support. Commodity programmes originally supported farm incomes through a combination of taxpayer-funded production payments and supply management in the form of acreage limits and commodity storage programmes. The Food Security Act of 1985 introduced changes that moved farmers towards more market orientation by reducing price supports in favour of direct payments, introducing greater planting flexibility and giving more attention to export opportunities for US farm products (OECD, 2011[2]).

Reforms continued with subsequent Farm Bills. The 1996 Farm Bill7 re-designed income support programmes by replacing target prices, price-based deficiency payments and acreage controls with historically based direct payments independent of current production. A series of ad hoc emergency top-up payments supplemented the historically based payments implemented under the 1996 Farm Bill to provide additional assistance in the face of low commodity prices. These ad hoc payments were institutionalised under the 2002 Farm Bill8 as counter-cyclical payments linked to the historically based direct payments, and continued under the 2008 Farm Bill9 (OECD, 2011[2]). The 2014 Farm Bill ended these direct and counter-cyclical payments but continued direct income support based on historical production with programmes triggering payments based on either reference prices or revenue benchmarks. It also ended the dairy price support programme, replacing it with a premium-based milk-to-feed margin protection programme. The 2018 Farm Bill continued these programmes with only small adjustments (Table 28.4).

The largest of the farm programmes in the Farm Bill, the Federal Crop Insurance Programme (FCIP), was established in the 1930s to cover yield losses from most natural causes.10 The programme’s current form was authorised by the Federal Crop Insurance Act of 1980 and modified by subsequent Farm Bills and other legislation. The 1980 Act introduced federal premium subsidies and brought in private insurance companies (Approved Insurance Providers, or AIPs) to deliver crop insurance policies. The catastrophic (CAT) coverage level was created in 1994, under which 100% of the premium is subsidised and producers pay a fee for coverage of yield loss greater than 50% at 55% of the base commodity price.11 The Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000 expanded the geographic availability of insurance, increased premium subsidy levels, and removed restrictions on livestock insurance products.

Table 28.4. United States: Agricultural policy trends

Period	Framework	Changes in agricultural policies
1980	Federal Crop Insurance Act of 19801	Introduced federal premium subsidies for crop insurance (30% at the 65% coverage level) Created a public-private partnership with private insurance companies (Approved Insurance Providers), which became responsible for delivering crop insurance policies
1985	Food Security Act of 1985	Established marketing loans for cotton and rice, removing market price support element of cotton and rice commodity loans Set up the Export Enhancement Programme and the Dairy Export Incentive Programme. Established the Conservation Reserve Programme (CRP) Established conservation cross-compliance requirements (highly erodible land and wetland conservation provisions)
1990	Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990	Introduced 15% “normal flex acres” and 10% “optional flex acres” Extended marketing loan provisions to oilseeds in 1991, and to wheat and feed grains in 1993 Allowed oilseeds and alternative crops to be planted on land in a 0/85-92 programme without loss of payments.
1994	Federal Crop Insurance Reform and Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act of 19941	Catastrophic (CAT) crop insurance coverage level created Increased premium subsidies for higher coverage levels (buy-up coverage)
1996	Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996	Replaced crop deficiency payments and target prices with fixed direct payments decoupled from current prices and production levels to be reduced over time Eliminated most planting restrictions Extended marketing loan provisions to most other covered crops and created alternative direct Loan Deficiency Payments (LDP) Phased-out the dairy support price (although interim legislation modified this provision) Consolidated cost share and technical assistance programmes for crop and livestock producers into the Environmental Quality Incentives Programme (EQIP) Extended CRP authorisation and capped enrolment Lifted conservation cross-compliance requirements for crop insurance participation
2000	Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 20001	Expanded the geographic availability of crop insurance, increased premium subsidy levels, and removed restrictions on development of livestock insurance products
2002	Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002	Annually decreasing Production Flexibility Contract payments replaced by fixed Direct Payments programme Created the Counter-Cyclical Payments programme triggering supplemental direct income support payments when prices fell below targets Added soybeans and peanuts as covered commodities under the fixed Direct Payment and Counter-Cyclical Payments programme Increased payments for environmental conservation and protection Eliminated peanut price support quota system, buying out peanut quota rights
2008	Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008	Retained Direct Payment, Counter-Cyclical Payment and Marketing Assistance Loan programmes Created the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) as a revenue-based alternative to the Counter-Cyclical Payment programme Changed the dairy price support programme basis from milk price to prices of dairy products Increased marketing assistance loan rates and Counter-Cyclical Payment programme target prices for a number of programme crops and sugar Introduced a permanent disaster assistance programme (Supplemental Agricultural Disaster Assistance) to end the need for ad hoc programmes Significantly increased funding for domestic food assistance programmes Ended the Export Enhancement Programme
2014	Agricultural Act of 2014	Repealed Direct Payment, Counter-Cyclical Payment, and ACRE programmes; created the Price Loss Coverage (PLC) and Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC), which used the historical payment base established for the repealed programmes Added new crop insurance options: Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO), Stacked Income Protection Plan (STAX) for upland cotton; Expanded the Noninsured Crop Assistance Programme (NAP) to allow for higher premium-based coverage Re-established conservation cross-compliance requirement to receive crop insurance premium subsidies Expanded programmes for specialty crops, organic farmers, bioenergy, rural development, and beginning farmers and ranchers, continuing orientation to technical assistance, research, and development loans.
2018	Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018	Continued 2014 Farm Bill programmes with only minor changes, with some additions to programmes for specialty crops, organic farmers, local and regional markets, and beginning, military veteran and minority farmers. Extended to 2024.

Average producer support has declined as emergency payments (related to COVID-19, drought, and supply chain issues) continue to be phased out. Support now approaches historical lows and the overall pattern and level of support is stable. In 2023, most budgetary support was based on payments that require production and were based on either area planted or animal numbers, including the Federal Crop Insurance Program and certain disaster programmes. Sugar is the only commodity with MPS (Figure 28.7).

References

[1] Clancy, M. (2023), “Is technological progress in US agriculture slowing?”, in Artificial Intelligence in Science: Challenges, Opportunities and the Future of Research, OECD Publishing, Paris.

[3] Congressional Research Service (2019), What is the Farm Bill?, CRS Report RS22131, Congressional Research Service, https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RS/RS22131.

[2] OECD (2011), Evaluation of Agricultural Policy Reforms in the United States, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264096721-en.

Notes

← 1.  The term “underserved communities” refers to populations sharing a particular characteristic, as well as geographic communities, that have been systematically denied a full opportunity to participate in aspects of economic, social, and civic life.

← 2.  Base acres are a farm’s crop-specific historical acreage of wheat, feed grains, seed cotton, rice, oilseeds, pulse crops or peanuts eligible to participate in the ARC and PLC commodity programmes. Base acres are not linked to current plantings.

← 3.  The effective reference price is the lesser of 115% of the reference price specified in the law or an amount equal to the greater of the reference price or 85% of the average prices from the 5 preceding years, excluding the highest and lowest price. This method of calculating the payment rates allows the effective reference price to be greater than the statutory reference price if historic average prices are greater than the statutory reference price.

← 4.  For ARC-IC, all base acres had to be enrolled in ARC-IC.

← 5.  A claim of discrimination may be based on differential treatment because of race, national origin or ethnicity (including status as a member of a Native American Tribe), sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, age, marital status, disability, or in reprisal/retaliation for prior civil rights activity.

← 6.  See https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/agricultural-trade/.

← 7.  Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-127).

← 8.  Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-171).

← 9.  Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-246).

← 10.  Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 (7 U.S.C. 1281).

← 11.  Federal Crop Insurance Reform and Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994. The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (“2008 Farm Bill”) continued the 100% premium subsidy for CAT but increased CAT fees from USD 50 to USD 300/crop/county.