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Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Emergency Assistance for Agricultural Land Rehabilitation


Megan Stubbs
Specialist in Agricultural Conservation and Natural Resources Policy

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers several permanently authorized programs to help producers recover from natural disasters. Most of these programs offer financial assistance to producers for a loss in the production of crops or livestock. In addition to the production assistance programs, USDA also has several permanent disaster assistance programs that help producers repair damaged crop and forest land following natural disasters. These programs offer financial and technical assistance to producers to repair, restore, and mitigate damage on private land. These emergency agricultural land assistance programs include the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP), the Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP), and the Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) program. In addition to these programs, USDA also has flexibility in administering other programs that allow for support and repair of damaged cropland in the event of an emergency.

Both ECP and EFRP are administered by USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA). ECP assists landowners in restoring agricultural production damaged by natural disaster. Participants are paid a percentage of the cost to restore the land to a productive state. ECP is available only on private land, and eligibility is determined locally. EFRP was created to assist private forestland owners to address damage caused by a natural disaster on nonindustrial private forest land.

The EWP program and the EWP floodplain easement program are administered by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). The EWP program assists sponsors, landowners, and operators in implementing emergency recovery measures for runoff retardation and erosion prevention to relieve imminent hazards to life and property created by a natural disaster. In some cases this can include state and federal land. The EWP floodplain easement program is a mitigation program that pays for permanent easements on private land meant to safeguard lives and property from future floods, drought, and the products of erosion.

Most of the emergency agricultural land assistance programs are funded through supplemental appropriations, rather than annual appropriations. As a result, funding for emergency agricultural land assistance varies greatly from year to year. Agricultural land assistance programs do not usually receive the level of attention that triggers a supplemental appropriation. Therefore, funding is typically provided for these land assistance programs as part of a larger supplemental appropriation that funds a number of agencies and programs beyond agriculture. This irregular funding method has left some agricultural land assistance programs without funding during times of high request.

Recent restrictions placed on supplemental appropriations for disaster assistance have changed the way the agricultural land assistance programs allocate funding, potentially assisting fewer natural disasters. Language in the Budget Control Act of 2011 (P.L. 112-25) limits emergency supplemental funding for disaster relief. Specifically, funding used for disaster relief must be used for activities carried out pursuant to the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act, P.L. 93-288) for FY2012 through FY2021. This means funds appropriated through emergency supplementals for disaster relief for these 10 years may only apply to activities with a Stafford Act designation. Since funding for agricultural land disaster assistance programs is appropriated almost exclusively through supplementals, this requirement could limit the way agricultural land assistance programs work in the future, potentially assisting fewer natural disaster events.

Date of Report: November 7, 2013
Number of Pages: 16
Order Number: R42854
Price: $29.95


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Tuesday, November 26, 2013

International Food Aid: U.S. and Other Donor Contributions


Charles E. Hanrahan
Senior Specialist in Agricultural Policy

Carol Canada
Information Research Specialist

The United States is the world’s major provider of international food aid to low-income developing countries. This report provides data on the U.S. contribution to global food aid as reported by signatories of the International Food Aid Convention (FAC) and compiled by the International Grains Council (IGC), as well as data on U.S. and other donor contributions to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP).

The Food Aid Convention (FAC) is an agreement among donor countries to provide a minimum amount of food aid to low-income developing countries. The food aid commitment agreed to by all FAC signatories in 1999 was approximately 4.9 million metric tons (mmt) annually. The United States pledged to provide 2.5 mmt annually, or 51% of the total annual commitment. A new FAC, renamed the Food Assistance Convention, was negotiated in 2012. The United States ratified the new FAC on September 26, 2012. Commitments under the new convention are pending.

Data from the IGC show that U.S. food aid accounted for 56% of food aid shipments by FAC signatories over the period 1995/1996-2011/2012.

A substantial portion of U.S. food aid is channeled through the WFP. Over the period from 1996 to October 20, 2013, around 43% of donor contributions to the WFP came from the United States.

Date of Report: November 12, 2013
Number of Pages: 14
Order Number: RS21279
Price: $29.95


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Monday, November 25, 2013

Conservation Compliance and U.S. Farm Policy


Megan Stubbs
Specialist in Agricultural Conservation and Natural Resources Policy

The Food Security Act of 1985 (P.L. 99-198, 1985 farm bill) included a number of significant conservation provisions designed to reduce production and conserve soil and water resources. Many of the provisions remain in effect today, including the two compliance provisions—highly erodible land conservation (sodbuster) and wetland conservation (swampbuster). The two provisions, collectively referred to as conservation compliance, require that in exchange for certain U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) program benefits, a producer agrees to maintain a minimum level of conservation on highly erodible land and not to convert wetlands to crop production.

Conservation compliance affects most USDA benefits administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). These benefits can include commodity support payments, disaster payments, farm loans, and conservation program payments, to name a few. If a producer is found to be in violation of conservation compliance, then a number of penalties could be enforced. These penalties range from temporary exemptions that allow the producer time to correct the violation, to a determination that the producer is ineligible for any USDA farm payment and must pay back current and prior years’ benefits.

As Congress considers the reauthorization of farm policy in the next farm bill, issues related to conservation compliance have emerged. The reduction in soil erosion from highly erodible land conservation continues, but at a slower pace than following enactment of the 1985 farm bill. The leveling off of erosion reductions leaves broad policy questions related to conservation compliance, including whether an acceptable level of soil erosion on cropland has been achieved; whether additional reductions could be achieved, and if so, at what cost; and how federal farm policy should encourage additional reductions in erosion. These broad policy questions, in addition to general concerns of program oversight and implementation, continue to influence the farm bill debate.

One of the most controversial farm bill proposals involves adding crop insurance subsidies to the list of benefits that could be lost if a producer is found to be out of compliance. Federal crop insurance subsidies were originally included as a benefit that could be denied under the compliance provisions. However, they were removed in the 1996 farm bill to increase producer flexibility, while at the same time direct payments were added. Presently, high commodity prices have resulted in few or no counter-cyclical payments, leaving conservation program participation and direct payments as the remaining major benefits that might motivate producer compliance with conservation requirements. The Senate-passed farm bill (S. 954) would eliminate countercyclical and direct payments, and re-tie federal crop insurance subsidies to compliance requirements. The House-passed farm bill (H.R. 2642) would also eliminate direct payments, but does not tie crop insurance subsidies to compliance requirements. Re-tying crop insurance subsidies to compliance requirements has been met with mixed reviews. Most in the conservation and environmental community support the requirement, while some producer groups and the crop insurance industry are wary of the linkage. Separately, the Senate and House bills establish a “sodsaver” provision for new crop production on native sod. The provision reduces crop insurance premium subsidies and prohibits benefits under the Noninsured Crop Disaster or general commodity programs on land that has never been tilled. Conference negotiations to reconcile the two bills are ongoing.

Date of Report: November 4, 2013
Number of Pages: 23
Order Number: R42459
Price: $29.95


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