Most agricultural producers participating in programs through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), including Federal crop insurance administered by the Risk Management Agency (RMA) and various Farm Programs administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA), are required to file an acreage report as a condition of the program. The acreage report contains producer identification, crop details, critical dates, and land location information that is used for program variables and creating necessary records for such programs. In most cases these reports are filed with both a producer’s local FSA office, and the producer’s Approved Insurance Provider (AIP) via their crop insurance agent, despite containing similar information.

Beginning in 2010, the USDA began the Acreage Crop Reporting Streamlining Initiative (ACRSI), a project aimed to reduce the burden to producers in this process. Numerous changes to the processes have been made since that time. Additionally, data sharing technology, via common data standards and an electronic Clearinghouse, have been developed to allow acreage data submitted through either traditional channel to be transmitted automatically to the other for use.

However, Section 515(j)(1)(B)(ii) of the Federal Crop Insurance Act, as amended by the Agricultural Act of 2014, requires the USDA to:

…allow producers to report acreage and other information directly to the Department.

Given such a requirement for crop insurance, the USDA is pursuing changes to the data standards and Clearinghouse to allow producers, via an external provider, to submit their acreage data directly to the USDA for automated distribution to their local FSA office and AIP. There will likely be multiple stages, from proof of concept to pilot to large scale implementation, with the first stages of participation from providers beginning as early as the summer of 2018. No financial compensation from the USDA to providers for these services is authorized.

Please review attachments. Any interested provider should email RMA at ACRSI@rma.usda.gov, declaring their interest to engage in becoming an ACRSI provider. To be considered for participation in a potential phase during summer 2018, providers must email RMA within 10 business days of the date of this memorandum. However, providers that contact RMA after that date may still be included for future stages.

Once contacted, RMA will set up appropriate communications with each provider to understand capabilities, including customer base, technical feasibility, and business processes. Providers will not be selected for participation in a competitive fashion. Instead, each provider will be analyzed based on their unique ability to accomplish the goals of ACRSI. There is no firm number of providers to participate at any given stage of implementation. However, RMA reserves the right to limit participation among viable providers on a first come, first served basis if it deems such numbers cannot be reasonably supported.

All providers will be required to certify to appropriate terms of service to submit data on behalf of producers.

• Draft Interconnection Security Agreement
• Draft Data Submission Standards
• Draft Data Submission Validation Rules

DISPOSAL DATE:
December 31, 2019