Off Base, Part 1: Reviewing Issues and Problems with Base Acre Policy

By Jonathan Coppess

The term “off base” is defined as “not being in agreement with what is true” (Merriam-Webster.com). For farm policy, the term may conjure the base acre design for farm program payments because the payments are decoupled from the planted crop—payments claimed to help manage crop risks are not in agreement with what crop was, in truth, planted and at risk. On January 12, 2026, USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) published the rule for changes to farm payment programs, including base acres, made by the Reconciliation Farm Bill and has indicated that it will prioritize allocating additional base acres to unassigned base acres, which are former upland cotton base acres (91 FR 1043; see also, USDA-FSA, Notice ARCPLC-123). It was also reported that signup for the farm payment programs is likely to be significantly delayed (Farm Policy News, January 12, 2026). These matters refocus attention on the base acre issue. This article initiates a review of base acres and potential concerns or issues with the policy design.

Background

The farm payment programs, Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC), make payments to farmers on base acres, rather than the acres planted to the crop for which the payment is made. Thus, farmers can receive payments for crops they don’t plant while planting other crops that might provide a better return. It can be a confusing aspect of farm policy design that obscures important realities on the ground. Base acres have been discussed multiple times and this background briefly reviews development of this particular policy design (see, farmdoc daily, July 20, 2023; August 10, 2023; August 17, 2023).

The base acre system is rooted in acreage allotments which were part of the parity policy design that developed out of the New Deal farm policies. The modern version began with the 1985 and 1990 Farm Bills, which also created the modern Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) (P.L. 99-198; P.L 101-624). The Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 decoupled payments from planted acres, further developing the base acre system as part of the most significant changes to farm policy since enactment in 1933 (P.L. 104-127). Congress provided an opportunity to update and increase base acres in the 2002 Farm Bill, the last time that option was authorized (P.L. 107-171). The 2014 Farm Bill allowed farmers an option to reallocate base acres but not increase them or bring new base acres into the program; it also removed upland cotton base acres from the program, redesignating them generic base acres, due to the World Trade Organization dispute with Brazil (P.L. 113-79). Budget legislation enacted in early 2018 brought cotton back into the programs as seed cotton base acres (farmdoc daily, February 14, 2018). The Reconciliation Farm Bill enacted in 2025 authorized an additional 30 million base acres to be allocated using recent planting records (farmdoc daily, July 1, 2025; July 11, 2025).

Discussion

The discussion that follows is the start of an attempt to review the issue of base acres in farm policy design and make progress towards answering questions or addressing concerns about it. Among them are the impacts for farmers producing the same crop but receiving vastly different payments, as well as how that may impact planting decisions. This discussion is only a start, however, and is not intended to be a full or final analysis. For one thing, it uses national average data. The intent is to frame the question or help set up the issue to be explored. State or county level data is needed to complete the analysis. Using national data is better than the back of a bar napkin but much work needs to be done.