Summary: GAO discussed proposed legislation that would change the manner in which the Department of Agriculture (USDA) computes the acreage bases and program yields which are used to compute the payments for farm program participants. GAO found that inflated bases existed because the Secretary had stated that acreage bases would be determined by averaging the previous 2 years plantings and including the acres which were considered planted but were not because of natural disasters. As a result, participants who had not planted a crop but wanted to retain their base were given full credit as if they had planted their base for that year. The legislation would provide that the sum of the crop acreage base could not exceed the farm acreage base, and that a yield determination would use actual production evidence as its assignment basis. GAO believes that consideration should be given to using: (1) planted acres for harvest instead of harvested acres since farm program payments are made on the basis of planted acres for harvest, and farmers currently report planted acres to USDA; and (2) a weighted average calculation, which would use the total number of acres planted for harvest to determine program yields.
