How Payment Limits Work in USDA Programs

Payment limitation rules are one of the most debated aspects of US farm policy. Congress imposes caps to ensure that public support flows to genuine family farm operations and not to large agribusiness entities. In practice, the caps have proven surprisingly porous.

Current payment limits by program

Under the 2018 Farm Bill:

ARC and PLC combined: $125,000 per year per person
CRP rental payments: no payment limit
EQIP: $450,000 per year per person
Disaster programs (LFP, LIP, ELAP): $125,000 per year per person
Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance (NAP): $125,000 per year per person

Why CRP has no payment limit

CRP rental payments were exempted from payment limits on the theory that they are conservation payments to landowners, not production subsidies to farmers. This exemption has been criticized because large landowners can receive substantial CRP payments without limit, while commodity program payments to active farmers are capped.

The "three-entity rule" and its evolution

Historically, USDA allowed a farmer to receive payments through their own operation plus up to two additional entities in which they had an interest. This "three-entity rule" was effectively eliminated in the 2008 Farm Bill, replaced with stricter direct attribution rules. But USDA's enforcement of direct attribution has faced criticism for allowing pass-through structures to persist.

AGI limits

Farmers with adjusted gross income above $900,000 are ineligible for most commodity and disaster program payments, though not for conservation payments. This limit is supposed to restrict benefits to genuinely farming families rather than high-income investors, but critics note that the threshold is very high relative to national income levels.

Implications for the data

When you look at large named recipients in SubsidyLookup's recipient index, the amounts you see represent what was reported to USDA under a single legal entity name. Related entities under common beneficial ownership may appear as separate recipients in the data, making it difficult to assess the true concentration of payments to a single farm enterprise.