What Are Covered Commodities Under 7 U.S.C. § 9011?

Covered commodities under 7 U.S.C. § 9011 are the crops Congress has designated as eligible for federal price support through the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs. The statute lists twelve categories: wheat, corn, grain sorghum, barley, oats, long grain rice, medium grain rice, soybeans, other oilseeds, peanuts, pulse crops, and (since the 2018 Farm Bill) seed cotton.¹ Each carries a statutory reference price that sets the floor for federal payments, and for the 2026 crop year those reference prices rose by 10 to 21 percent following the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.²

How the Statute Organizes the List

Section 9011(6) does not spell out every eligible crop in one place. Some entries are single crops, like wheat and corn. Others are umbrella terms defined in their own paragraphs of the same section. “Other oilseeds” in paragraph (13) expands into nine named seeds plus any the Secretary of Agriculture adds later. “Pulse crops” in paragraph (18) covers four specific legumes. “Medium grain rice” in paragraph (12) sweeps in short grain and temperate japonica varieties.¹ The paragraph that governs a crop matters because reference prices, loan rates, and payment calculations differ from one category to the next.

Grains and Soybeans

Wheat, corn, grain sorghum, barley, oats, and soybeans account for the largest share of acreage under these programs. The statute makes clear that wheat, oats, and barley used for haying and grazing still count as covered commodities, a detail some producers miss.¹

The 2026 statutory reference prices are:

Wheat: $6.35 per bushel (up from $5.50)
Corn: $4.10 per bushel (up from $3.70)
Grain sorghum: $4.40 per bushel
Barley: $5.45 per bushel
Oats: $2.65 per bushel
Soybeans: $10.00 per bushel (up from $8.40)

Beginning in 2031, all statutory reference prices will increase by 0.5 percent annually, so these floors continue to rise over time.²

Other Oilseeds

Soybeans are biologically oilseeds, but the statute pulls them out as their own line item. The separate “other oilseed” category in paragraph (13) covers sunflower seed, rapeseed, canola, safflower, flaxseed, mustard seed, crambe, and sesame seed.¹ This category has a built-in expansion mechanism: the Secretary of Agriculture can designate additional oilseeds without waiting for Congress to amend the law. Cotton interests once lobbied to have cottonseed classified as an “other oilseed” under the 2014 Farm Bill.³

All crops in this category share one reference price of $23.75 per hundredweight for 2026, up from $20.15.² A safflower grower and a canola grower are measured against the same benchmark even though their crops trade at different market prices.

Pulse Crops

Paragraph (18) defines pulse crops as dry peas, lentils, small chickpeas, and large chickpeas.¹ The split between small and large chickpeas is not botanical trivia. Each variety carries a different reference price and loan rate, so the classification directly affects what a producer can receive. For 2026:

Dry peas: $13.10 per hundredweight
Lentils: $23.75 per hundredweight
Small chickpeas: $22.65 per hundredweight
Large chickpeas: $25.65 per hundredweight

Large chickpeas carry a reference price nearly double that of dry peas.²

Long Grain and Medium Grain Rice

Rice occupies two separate spots on the covered commodity list. Medium grain rice, defined in paragraph (12), includes both short grain rice and temperate japonica rice.¹ Temperate japonica gets its own detailed definition in paragraph (23) because it plays a specific role in base acre reallocation, reference price calculations, and ARC revenue determinations for rice grown in high-altitude or high-latitude areas of the Western United States.

Long grain and medium grain rice share the same 2026 reference price of $16.90 per hundredweight, up from $14.00.⁴ Despite the identical figure, the two are administered separately. Producers cannot combine long grain and medium grain base acres, and each generates its own payment calculations.

Seed Cotton

Seed cotton joined the covered commodity list starting with the 2018 crop year. Paragraph (21) defines it as unginned upland cotton that includes both lint and seed.¹ Before that change, cotton producers had no access to PLC or ARC. The 2026 reference price for seed cotton is $0.42 per pound, up from $0.367.⁴

Peanuts

Peanuts appear in the covered commodity definition alongside the grains and soybeans, but the statute treats them separately in practice. Peanut base acres are administered on their own track, and payment limitations for peanuts operate independently from the limit that applies to all other covered commodities.⁵ A producer can receive the full payment limit for non-peanut commodities and a second, separate limit for peanuts.

The 2026 reference price for peanuts is $630.00 per ton, up from $535.00, roughly an 18 percent increase and one of the larger jumps of any covered commodity.²

What Covered Status Gets You

Being on the § 9011(6) list makes a crop eligible for two federal safety-net programs. Producers choose between them on a crop-by-crop basis each year, so PLC can run on your wheat base while ARC runs on your corn base, with the option to flip them the following year.

Price Loss Coverage

PLC pays when the market price for a crop drops below its statutory reference price. The effective price for a crop year is the higher of the national average market price or the national loan rate. If that effective price falls short of the reference price, the difference becomes the payment rate, which is multiplied by the farm’s payment yield and 85 percent of its base acres.⁶ If corn’s reference price is $4.10 and the marketing year average is $3.65, the payment rate is $0.45 per bushel.

Agriculture Risk Coverage

ARC focuses on revenue rather than price alone. For the 2025 through 2031 crop years, the ARC guarantee equals 90 percent of a benchmark revenue figure calculated from recent price and yield history. When actual crop revenue falls below that guarantee, the shortfall becomes the payment rate, capped at 12 percent of the benchmark revenue.⁷ The guarantee percentage rose from 86 percent and the cap rose from 10 percent under the current law.

Payment Limits

For the 2026 crop year, ARC and PLC payments are capped at $164,000 per person or legal entity for covered commodities other than peanuts. Peanuts carry a separate $164,000 limit, so a producer growing both corn and peanuts could receive up to that amount from each track.² Starting with the 2025 crop year, FSA adjusts these caps annually for inflation using the Consumer Price Index, and the limit cannot decrease from one year to the next.

Covered Does Not Mean Automatically Paid

Growing a covered commodity does not by itself entitle you to payments. Separate eligibility rules apply, including annual acreage reporting to FSA, conservation compliance on highly erodible land and wetlands, an adjusted gross income ceiling of $900,000 averaged over the three preceding tax years, and the “actively engaged in farming” test that requires contributions of capital, land, or equipment along with labor or management.⁸⁹ Any one of them can knock out benefits entirely, so producers growing the right crop still need to clear the rest of the eligibility framework before a payment arrives.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 7 U.S.C. 9011 – Definitions
2
Federal Register. Changes to Agriculture Risk Coverage, Price Loss Coverage, and Dairy Margin Coverage Programs
3
House Committee on Agriculture. Weekly Roundup – December 11, 2015
4
Farm Service Agency. 2026 Reference Prices
5
Farm Service Agency. Payment Limitations
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 7 U.S.C. 9016 – Price Loss Coverage
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 7 U.S. Code 9017 – Agriculture Risk Coverage
8
Farm Service Agency. Adjusted Gross Income
9
eCFR. 7 CFR 1400.201 – General Provisions for Determining Whether a Person or Legal Entity Is Actively Engaged in Farming