Kansas Wheat Commission / Kansas Association of Wheat Growers Supplement to High Plains Journal March 2014
Farm Bill Enters Implementation Phase
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fter nearly three years of limbo in Congress, a five-year farm bill has been passed and has entered the implementation phase. Farmers across the nation now face the burden of learning how the changes will affect their home operations. The legislation is expected to reduce spending by $23 billion over the next decade, with a portion coming from the end of direct payments. This cut allowed law makers to expand the federally subsidized crop insurance programs to help farmers better manage risk tied to unexpected weather disasters or fluctuations in commodity prices. “We are grateful for the passage of a farm bill,” said Dalton Henry, director of governmental affairs for Kansas Wheat. “We will continue to work on both the unresolved regulatory pieces and will follow implementation closely during the rules phase to ensure the changes work for wheat farmers.”
The bill provides a multi-year safety net and authorization for key programs such as the Market Access Program and Foreign Market Development Program. It also shifts commodity support from direct payments to a mix of programs that will only pay when a farmer experiences a loss. The programs include Ag Risk While “We are excited and thankful to Coverage, Supplemental wheat farmers have a strengthend safety net Coverage Option and Price may be Loss Coverage. disappointed under farm income,” said Justin Crop insurance avoided Gilpin, CEO of Kansas Wheat. that the bill the adjusted gross income includes limits that had many duplicative wheat farmers concerned and did gain conservation compliance regulations permanent enterprise units and the tied to crop insurance and doesn’t splitting of enterprise units between address overbearing regulations such irrigated and non-irrigated cropland. as the Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) or National Crop insurance also gains a new Pollutant Discharge Elimination provision beneficial to Kansas wheat System Permits (NPDES), it does growers that will allow producers provide several benefits. to remove a catastrophic loss year from the actual production history “We are excited and thankful to calculation. This will allow producers have a strengthened safety net under carrying a low yield year such as a once farm income,” said Justin Gilpin, CEO in a lifetime freeze or drought to be of Kansas Wheat.
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removed so that producers will have coverage that more accurately depicts actual production. The research title of the farm bill authorizes several programs vital to America’s wheat producers, including $10 million per year to support Fusarium, or scab research and a new foundation-based research initiative, the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research. FFAR has been provided with authorization for $200 million to be matched by private dollars in support of research complementary to existing programs. It will be governed by a 15-member board nominated by the National Academy of Sciences. The conservation title of the Farm Bill streamlines and consolidates conservation programs to achieve cost savings and improve delivery of programs. The bill retains the Conservation Reserve Program but decreases the enrollment cap to 24 million acres by 2018, down from the existing 32 million.