Agricultural Risk Coverage (County and Individual)

Agricultural risk coverage (ARC) is a “shallow loss” agribusiness income guarantee program created in the 2014 farm bill. Producers of major commodity crops such as wheat, corn, soybeans and many others may choose county-based or individual coverage. The program covers shallow as opposed to deep losses experienced after severe droughts or floods. For producers choosing individual ARC, payments are issued when crop revenues summed across all commodities on the farm fall by a similar amount. ARC is made available to farmers in addition to crop insurance, a highly subsidized federal program that already guarantees up to 85 percent of producers’ revenue each year. Payments from ARC and other farm subsidy programs are limited to $125,000 annually, while spouses and other family members including nieces, nephews and cousins may also receive an additional $125,000 per person with no cap on the number of family members who might be engaged in such a joint operation. Any individual with an annual adjusted gross income above $900,000 (after expenses are deducted) is ineligible for ARC subsidies. For more details, see Taxpayers for Common Sense’s (TCS) fact sheet on shallow loss programs.