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Planting Flexibility Provisions – Implications for Fruit & Vegetable Production

In mid-November 2002, USDA issued its final rule on the farm bill's planting flexibility provisions.

Under the rule, producers who sign contracts to participate in direct and counter-cyclical programs are prohibited from harvesting fruits, vegetables and wild rice on base program acres while at the same time receiving direct and counter-cyclical payments on those same base acres. The exceptions are:

  1. if the producer double crops fruits, vegetables and wild rice with program crops in regions where the practice has been designated customary (limited to specific counties in each state);

  2. if the farm has a history of producing fruits, vegetables and wild rice; or

  3. if the producer has a history of producing a specific fruit, specific vegetable or wild rice.

In those three circumstances, the producer's direct and counter-cyclical payments are reduced on an acre-for-acre basis.

A farm is considered to have a history in (2) above if at least one-tenth of one acre of a fruit, a vegetable or wild rice has been produced on its base acres in previous years. For farmers using a producer's history ((3) above) as the basis of for commodity program participation, the number of acres of a specific fruit, vegetable and wild rice harvested from base acres without incurring a penalty can be no more than the simple annual average of the specific fruit, vegetable or wild rice produced in the period 1991 through 1995, or the period 1998 through 2001, which ever the farmer chooses.

In instances where fruits, vegetables or wild rice are harvested on base acres, but none of the three exceptions pertain, the producer must refund commodity program payments equal to the market value of the fruits, vegetables and wild rice harvested, not to exceed the direct and counter-cyclical payments received on the entire farm.

 
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