CORN GROWERS GOING FOR REVENUE-BASED SAFETY NET

Want to move from fixed price to market-based price

The National Corn Growers Assn. (NCGA) will push Congress to redirect the federal program crop payment scheme, shifting from a production-based formula to one linked to producer revenue, and while the NCGA policy looks a whole lot like USDA's proposal, the corn growers are quick to point out they want to see a market-based price, not a fixed price, as the lynchpin in the income safety net apparatus. NCGA says the USDA revenue countercyclical payment is a national trigger, and the growers are calling for plan based on county revenues. The NCGA market-based price approach will allow a producer to maximize per-acre revenues as part of the formula. NCGA also wants to see direct payments and a Revenue Counter Cyclical Program (RCCP), modeled after group risk income coverage under crop insurance. By combining the countercyclical program and crop insurance and deducting the countercyclical payment from the crop insurance payment the cost of protection drops significantly, NCGA says.