Provisions for Traditionally Underserved Groups

The 2008 Farm Act includes participation incentives and improved access to farm programs for beginning, limited-resource, and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. Though not all Titles address the needs of all groups, provisions appear in Title I (Commodities), Title II (Conservation), Title V (Credit), Title VI (Rural Development), Title VII (Research), Title IX (Energy), Title XII (Crop Insurance), Title XIV (Miscellaneous), and Title XV (Trade and Tax Provisions).

Definitions of these three groups vary by title:

• Beginning Farmer or Rancher: In Titles II, VI, IX, and XIV, this term is left to be defined by Secretary of Agriculture. Title VII further specifies the definition to include an individual or an entity who has not operated a farm or ranch or has operated a farm or ranch for not more than 10 years, as well as "such other criteria as the Secretary may establish." Title V uses a similar definition for "qualified beginning farmer or rancher" for the purposes of credit programs, which also spells out requirements for operations that are organized as cooperatives, corporations, or other entities. To qualify, all members of the entity must be related by blood or marriage and all must be beginning farmers or ranchers. Definitions currently used by USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service and Farm Services Agency add the requirement that the individual or entity must substantially participate in day-to-day operations of the farm or ranch (definition applies to all members of the entity). In Title XII, no specific reference is made to a definition for beginning farmers and ranchers.

• Socially Disadvantaged Farmer or Rancher: This term means a farmer or rancher who is a member of a socially disadvantaged group. "Socially disadvantaged group" means a group whose members have been subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice because of their identity as members of a group without regard to their individual qualities. The definition that applies to Titles I, V, and VI includes members of a group subject to gender prejudice, while the definition that applies to Titles II, IX, XII, and XV does not. Title XIV and the Education and Risk Management Assistance provision in Title XII do not make specific reference to the statutory definition of socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher.

• Limited-Resource Farmer or Rancher: Titles I, II, and XII are the only titles that refer to limited-resource farmers or ranchers. The term "limited-resource farmer or rancher" means such term as defined by the Secretary. As currently defined by USDA, a limited-resource farmer or rancher is one who has: 1) direct or indirect gross farm sales not more than $116,800 in each of the previous 2 years (in 2005 dollars, adjusted for inflation each year), and 2) a total household income at or below the national poverty level for a family of four or less than 50 percent of county median household income in each of the previous 2 years.

• Direct Payments and Counter-Cyclical Payments. Treatment of Farms With Limited Base Acres exempts limited-resource and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers from the base-acreage minimum for receiving direct, counter-cyclical, or average crop revenue election payments.

• Transfer of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) Land. Conservation Reserve Program facilitates transfer of CRP land from a retiring farmer or rancher to a beginning or socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher.

• Advance Payments in EQIP. Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) provides advance payments for beginning, limited-resource, or socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers.

• Cost-Share Reimbursements in EQIP. Environmental Quality Incentives Program adds socially disadvantaged farmers to those eligible for higher cost-share rates.

• Funding and Acreage Set-Asides in Working Lands Programs. Conservation Access sets aside a portion of funds in EQIP and acres in the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) for beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.

• Cost-Share Reimbursements in CSP. Conservation Stewardship Program changes the method for setting payments for all producers, and no longer specifically provides for higher cost-share rates on new practices applied by beginning and limited-resource producers.

• Conservation Program Participation Incentives. Incentives for Certain Farmers and Ranchers and Indian Tribes adds socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers to those eligible for conservation program participation incentives.

• Priority for Loans and Guarantees. Conservation Loan and Loan Guarantee Program gives priority to beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers who use loans to cover costs to carry out a qualified conservation project.

• Down Payment Loans. Down Payment Loan Program adds socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers to the program, which previously benefited only beginning farmers and ranchers, and adjusts rates and terms of loans for all participants.

• Contract Land Sales Loan Guarantee. Beginning Farmer or Rancher and Socially Disadvantaged Farmer or Rancher Contract Land Sales Program expands the program that guarantees loans for private-contract land sales to beginning farmers and ranchers and adds socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.

• Matching Funds Savings Accounts. Beginning Farmers and Rancher Individual Development Accounts Pilot Program offers beginning farmers and ranchers an opportunity to participate in matching-fund savings accounts.

• Priority for Buying USDA Farm Service Agency Inventory Property. Inventory Sales Preferences reestablishes socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers as a priority group, along with beginning farmers and ranchers, for buying USDA inventory property.

• Loan Fund Set-Asides. Loan Fund Set-Asides increases the percentage of loan funds set aside for beginning farmers and ranchers.

• Homestead Right of First Refusal. Extension of Right of First Refusal to Reacquire Homestead Property to Immediate Family Members of Borrower-Owner provides for immediate family members to have the first opportunity to reacquire homestead property lost by a borrower, when the former borrower is a member of a socially disadvantaged group.

• Loans for Highly Fractionated Land. Loans to Purchasers of Highly Fractioned Land allows for loans to purchase highly fractionated land under the terms of the Indian Land Consolidation Act.

• Marketing Development Grants. Value-Added Agricultural Product Marketing Development Grants gives priority and sets asides funds for projects that will benefit beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.

• Rural Cooperative Development Grants Set-Aside. Existing Programs reserve 20 percent of grant funds for entities that serve socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.

• Education, Training, Outreach, and Assistance Grants. Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program awards grants to provide assistance to beginning farmers and ranchers.

• Assistance with Transitioning to Bioenergy Crops. Biomass Crop Assistance Program includes participation rates of beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers as a selection criteria for project areas.

• Risk Management Assistance. Supplemental Agricultural Disaster Assistance (SADA) waiver exempts beginning, socially disadvantaged, and limited-resource farmers and ranchers from the minimum risk-management purchase requirement to be eligible for disaster assistance.

• Outreach and Technical Assistance. Outreach and Assistance Program for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers expands grant program to encourage farming and program participation by socially disadvantaged groups.

• Accurate Documentation. Accurate Documentation in the Census of Agriculture and Certain Studies requires accurate documentation of socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers in the Census of Agriculture and Economic Research Service studies.

• Program Reporting. Transparency and Accountability for socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers requires compilation and reporting of data on participation of socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers in USDA programs.

• Minority Farmer Advisory Committee. Minority Farmer Advisory Committee requires establishment of a committee with at least four socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers and other professionals working with minority farmers and ranchers to advise the Secretary on maximizing minority farmer and rancher participation in USDA programs.

• Socially Disadvantaged Farmer or Rancher Claims and Class Actions. Sense of Congress Regarding Claims Against USDA by Socially Disadvantaged Farmers or Ranchers encourages the expeditious and just resolution of all pending claims and class actions relating to discrimination in farm programs.

• Pigford Claims. Determination on Merits of Pigford Claims offers an opportunity for a determination on the merits for certain claims previously denied for late filing under the consent decree in the Pigford v. Glickman class action case claiming race discrimination in USDA farm lending programs.

• Access to Programs. Office of Advocacy and Outreach establishes an office to improve program access for beginning, socially disadvantaged, and small farmers and ranchers.

• Risk Management Assistance. Supplemental Agricultural Disaster Assistance (SADA) waiver repeats the exemption provisions in the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments (SURE) program described in Title XII.