Farm Subsidy Glossary
Plain-English definitions of terms used throughout SubsidyLookup and in USDA farm subsidy data.
CFDA Number
A CFDA number (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance) is a unique identifier assigned to each federal assistance program. For example, the Conservation Reserve Program is CFDA 10.069, and Agriculture Risk Coverage is CFDA 10.112. Every payment in SubsidyLookup is tagged with the CFDA number of the program that authorized it. CFDA numbers appear on all federal spending records reported to USASpending.gov.
Fiscal Year
The federal government's fiscal year runs from October 1 through September 30. FY2023 covers October 1, 2022 through September 30, 2023. Farm subsidy payments are recorded under the fiscal year in which they were obligated, which may differ from the crop year or calendar year. All year references on SubsidyLookup use fiscal years unless otherwise noted.
Direct Payment
A direct payment is a cash transfer from a USDA agency directly to a farm operator or landowner under a specific program. SubsidyLookup includes direct payments (award type 06) as well as insurance-related payments (award types 09 and 10) from the USDA. Direct payments are distinct from loans, grants to organizations, or indirect assistance.
Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC)
Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) is a commodity support program that pays farmers when actual crop revenue falls below a benchmark based on historical prices and yields. ARC is offered at the county level (ARC-CO) and individual level (ARC-IC). It was created by the 2014 Farm Bill, replacing the older fixed Direct and Counter-cyclical Payment programs. Farmers must choose between ARC and PLC for each covered commodity.
Price Loss Coverage (PLC)
Price Loss Coverage (PLC) triggers payments when the national average market price for a commodity falls below a reference price set by Congress. It protects against price declines rather than revenue declines. Like ARC, PLC was established by the 2014 Farm Bill and farmers choose between the two programs per commodity, per farm.
Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)
The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) pays farmers annual rental payments to remove environmentally sensitive land from active agricultural production and establish plant cover that improves soil, water, and wildlife habitat. Contracts run 10–15 years. CRP is administered by the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) and is one of the largest conservation programs in the country by acreage enrolled and dollars paid.
Per-Capita Calculation
Per-capita figures on SubsidyLookup are calculated by dividing total USDA farm subsidy payments for a given state or county and year by the total resident population from the Census Bureau's annual population estimates, matched to the same fiscal year. This figure reflects average subsidy dollars per resident — not per farm or per farmer — and is useful for comparing subsidy concentration across states and counties, especially rural vs. urban comparisons.
PII Redaction
PII stands for Personally Identifiable Information. Beginning around fiscal year 2020, USDA began replacing individual farm operator names with "REDACTED DUE TO PII" in USASpending.gov disclosures, citing Privacy Act requirements. Payments to businesses, corporations, partnerships, and other non-individual entities typically remain named. All geographic data (county, state) and program data remain publicly available for all years, regardless of whether the recipient name is redacted.
USASpending.gov
USASpending.gov is the official public database of U.S. federal spending, maintained by the Department of the Treasury. Federal agencies are required to report all financial assistance awards to USASpending.gov under the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act). SubsidyLookup sources all of its payment data from USASpending.gov bulk downloads.
Data sourced from USASpending.gov. See also: Data Sources and About SubsidyLookup.