The US Department of Agriculture has opened enrolment in the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programmes for the 2026 crop year, the first sign-up since more than 30 million new base acres were added to the safety net, the biggest expansion in twenty years. Farmers have from 16 September to 11 December 2026 to enrol; the 2027 window opens on 2 November and runs to 15 March 2027.

Because landowners asked for more base acres than the national limit of 30 million, the Farm Service Agency applied a uniform reduction of 3.69 percent to every newly allocated acre. The review period for allocations closed on 31 August, and USDA says no one lost existing base acres in the process. Final allocation notices are available online and at county FSA offices from 16 September.

Producers may choose ARC-County or PLC crop by crop, or ARC-Individual for the whole operation. A 2026 election is optional, but a signed contract is required every year: the old multi-year contracts ended in 2025, and a new one can run through 2031. Anyone who misses the 11 December deadline keeps the 2025 election but receives no 2026 payment.

"President Trump and Secretary Rollins are putting Farmers First by providing increased access to the farm safety net," said Under Secretary Richard Fordyce, adding that farmers can now also change their programme election. Covered commodities include corn, soybeans, wheat, barley, oats, sorghum, rice, peanuts, sunflower, lentils, chickpeas, dry peas, canola and sesame.

The department has also loosened the crop-insurance rules around the programmes: Supplemental Coverage Option and Enhanced Coverage Option can now be bought whether a farm chooses ARC or PLC. The one exception remains cotton, where seed-cotton base acres enrolled in ARC or PLC cannot be combined with STAX coverage on the same farm. Land-grant universities offer online tools to compare the two options.

Photo: USDA

Source: Farms.com