2023 ARC-CO and PLC Payments for Corn, Soybeans, and Wheat

The overarching policy narrative of this article is that holes exist in the current design of commodity programs, including an expected lack of commodity program payments of notable size until Fall of 2026 (farmdoc daily, October 22, 2024). Instead of passing ad hoc economic assistance, this article proposes a new multiyear risk program (MYR) as a better use of the funds and as more likely to fix holes in the crop safety net. As proposed, MYR would replace the current ARC (Agriculture Risk Coverage) commodity program and offer an alternative to ad hoc assistance. MYR payments are estimated to exceed $4 billion to 2024 crops and $10 billion to 2025 crops if current low prices continue through 2025 and all acres are in MYR. These MYR payments can be made in the Fall of 2024 and Fall of 2025, respectively; or nearly two years and one year earlier than ARC and the other commodity program, PLC (Price Loss Coverage), are expected to make sizable payment. No presumption exists that MYR is the only design of a multiyear risk program, thus another objective of this article is to encourage discussion of needed changes to the crop safety net.