Fine tuning ACRE in the next farm bill
Farm and Ranch July 26, 2010 One of the themes of a recent Senate hearing on the 2012 Farm Bill was simplification of farm payment programs, with specific focus on the new Acreage Crop Revenue Election program, or ACRE. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack pointed out there is some fine tuning that could be done on the ACRE program in the next farm bill. Vilsack: “When only 8% of farms and 13% of base acres are included in the program, it tells you that there is still additional work that needs to be done.” So what would Vilsack fine-tune when it comes to ACRE? Vilsack: “The fact that you are making a farmer commit to a decision, particularly at the outset of this program, asking him or her to give up a certain percentage of payments and protections for something that isn‘t quite known, and then suggesting that they need to be locked in for an extended period of time, that this is not a year-to-year kind of operation, that they are locked in for the life of the farm bill, it makes it difficult for folks to try a new program out. Secondly, there is some concern that the program is based on state data as opposed to individual county data that may be adding a level of complexity to it, but it may make it easier for people to calculate how it may impact their operations and it may become a more popular program.” Vilsack told the Senate Agriculture Committee that as people see the impact of ACRE on their neighbors who elected ACRE hopefully, there will be improvements in participation. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net. ?
