WASHINGTON -- Fewer than 8 percent of farmers signed up only about 13 percent of the nation's cropland for the new average crop revenue program known as ACRE for the 2009 crop year, according to data released by the Agriculture Department Oct. 21.
The average crop revenue program, known as ACRE, was created in the 2008 farm bill as an alternative to the price-based program. Under ACRE, farmers are eligible for payments when the average revenue per acre in their state drops, but their direct payments are reduced by 20 percent and the marketing assistance loan rate is reduced by 30 percent.
Of the 1.7 million farms in the country, 128,620 farms signed up for ACRE while 1.54 million farms opted to stay with the traditional direct and countercyclical program. Of the nation's 254.6 million crop acres signed up for government programs, farmers signed up 32.5 million acres for ACRE and 222 million for the traditional program. More corn farmers signed up for the program than growers of any other crop. The states with the largest number of base acres enrolled in ACRE are Illinois, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota and North Dakota, USDA said.
Congress included the ACRE program in the 2008 farm bill at the urging of Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who then was chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. The National Corn Growers Association also lobbied vigorously for the new program, saying it would benefit their members more than the traditional farm program.
Under ACRE, farmers are eligible for payments when crop revenue drops, but their direct payments are reduced by 20 percent and the marketing assistance loan rate is reduced by 30 percent. Analysts said the signup rate was low because farmers found it difficult to weigh the new program's advantages and disadvantages.
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Farmers now have the option of signing up for ACRE for crop year 2010. Farmers who put land under ACRE must leave it in that program through 2012.
