Cotton Transition Assistance Program and General Provisions for Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage Programs

This rule implements the new Cotton Transition Assistance Program (CTAP) authorized by the Agricultural Act of 2014 (the 2014 Farm Bill). It also includes general provisions needed to implement CTAP, the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC), and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) Programs. ARC and PLC will be implemented through a separate rulemaking and will provide benefits for other commodities. CTAP is a temporary program that provides payments to producers on farms for which cotton base acres were in existence as of September 30, 2013, as adjusted. It will operate for only the 2014 crop year and in certain counties for the 2015 crop year, and is intended to be a transition for producers on farms with upland cotton base acres that were in existence as of September 30, 2013, between the previous Direct and Counter- cyclical Payments Program (DCP) and the new Stacked Income Protection Plan (STAX), which is authorized to begin no later than the 2015 crop year.