Solvancy is the first step in rice production (Jay Coker photo)
Feb 09, 2023
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry held its second Farm Bill hearing of the 118th Congress focused on commodity programs, crop insurance, and credit.
Hearing witnesses featured U.S. Department of Agriculture officials including Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation (FPCL) Robert Bonnie, Farm Service Agency (FSA) Administrator Zach Ducheneaux, and Risk Management Agency (RMA) Administrator Marcia Bunger.
While many committee members homed in on crop insurance, Sen. John Boozman (R-AR), ranking member of the full committee, stressed the importance of commodity programs, particularly the Price Loss Coverage (PLC) program, as the linchpin of the farm safety net for rice farmers.
“The 2023 Farm Bill must provide our producers with the risk management tools required to farm and ranch in this new reality,” said Boozman in his opening statement. “The current safety net is frayed and is in dire need of meaningful reinforcement … a newly reinforced safety net is essential if the United States would like our farmers and ranchers to continue to produce the most abundant, the most affordable, and the safest food supply in the world.”
The PLC program was created in the 2014 Farm Bill and reauthorized in the 2018 Farm Bill with some minor improvements. USA Rice Farmers – the leading national organization representing all U.S. rice farmers – along with USA Rice, is calling upon Congress, to, at a minimum, increase the rice reference price in the 2023 Farm Bill.
“Exceedingly high input costs coupled with stagnant rice market prices has eroded the rice farmer’s true safety net – the Price Loss Coverage program,” said Curtis Berry, a Mississippi rice farmer and chair of the USA Rice Farmers Board of Directors. “The PLC program, intended to provide assistance to farmers during times of depressed prices beyond the control of the farmer, has worked well for rice farmers until recently, so we’ll be working with Congress this year to ensure we have a viable and economical safety net for rice farmers.”
Under Secretary Bonnie also touched on the rice assistance passed in the last Congress in his opening statement. “The 2023 omnibus provided direction to the FPCL to assist rice producers impacted by high input costs,” said Bonnie. “The FSA and the RMA are working to build on our experience from the emergency relief we provided in 2022 to create a process that will be easy for producers and our staff.”
Throughout 2022, rice farmers from across the U.S. worked diligently to develop Farm Bill policy recommendations for the industry. In December 2022, the USA Rice Farmers adopted those priorities with improving the PLC program at the top of the list.