In carrying out the program established under paragraph (2), the Secretary shall place special emphasis on farm viability and risk management strategies (including farm financial benchmarking, business planning and technical assistance, market assessment, transfer and succession planning, and crop insurance participation), education, and outreach specifically targeted at—

(1) In general Subject to the amounts made available under paragraph (4), the Secretary, acting through the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, shall carry out the program established under paragraph (2).

The Secretary, acting through the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, shall establish a program under which competitive grants are made to qualified public and private entities (including land grant colleges, cooperative extension services, and colleges or universities), as determined by the Secretary, for the purpose of educating agricultural producers and providing technical assistance to agricultural producers on a full range of farm viability and risk management activities, including futures, options, agricultural trade options, crop insurance, business planning, enterprise analysis, transfer and succession planning, management coaching, market assessment, cash flow analysis, cash forward contracting, debt reduction, production diversification, farm resources risk reduction, farm financial benchmarking, conservation activities, and other risk management strategies.

(A) Authority The Secretary, acting through the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, shall establish a program under which competitive grants are made to qualified public and private entities (including land grant colleges, cooperative extension services, and colleges or universities), as determined by the Secretary, for the purpose of educating agricultural producers and providing technical assistance to agricultural producers on a full range of farm viability and risk management activities, including futures, options, agricultural trade options, crop insurance, business planning, enterprise analysis, transfer and succession planning, management coaching, market assessment, cash flow analysis, cash forward contracting, debt reduction, production diversification, farm resources risk reduction, farm financial benchmarking, conservation activities, and other risk management strategies.

(B) Basis for grants A grant under this paragraph shall be awarded on the basis of merit and shall be subject to peer or merit review.

(C) Obligation period Funds for a grant under this paragraph shall be available to the Secretary for obligation for a 2-year period.

(D) Administrative costs The Secretary may use not more than 4 percent of the funds made available for grants under this paragraph for administrative costs incurred by the Secretary in carrying out this paragraph.

In carrying out the program established under paragraph (2), the Secretary shall place special emphasis on farm viability and risk management strategies (including farm financial benchmarking, business planning and technical assistance, market assessment, transfer and succession planning, and crop insurance participation), education, and outreach specifically targeted at—

(A) beginning farmers or ranchers;

(B) legal immigrant farmers or ranchers that are attempting to become established producers in the United States;

(C) socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers;

(D) farmers or ranchers that— (i) are preparing to retire; (ii) are using transition strategies to help new farmers or ranchers get started; [1] (iii) are converting production and marketing systems to pursue new markets; and [2]

(E) producers that are underserved by the Federal crop insurance program established under this subchapter, as determined by the Corporation; and

(F) veteran farmers or ranchers.

(4) Funding From the insurance fund established under section 1516(c) of this title, there is transferred for the partnerships for risk management education program established under paragraph (2), $10,000,000 for fiscal year 2019 and each subsequent fiscal year, of which not less than $5,000,000 shall be used to carry out paragraph (3)(E).

A producer may use financial assistance provided under this subsection to—

(1) Authority The Secretary shall provide financial assistance to producers in the States of Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

A producer may use financial assistance provided under this subsection to—

(A) construct or improve— (i) watershed management structures; or (ii) irrigation structures;

(B) plant trees to form windbreaks or to improve water quality;

(C) mitigate financial risk through production or marketing diversification or resource conservation practices, including— (i) soil erosion control; (ii) integrated pest management; (iii) organic farming; or (iv) to develop and implement a plan to create marketing opportunities for the producer, including through value-added processing;

(D) enter into futures, hedging, or options contracts in a manner designed to help reduce production, price, or revenue risk;

(E) enter into agricultural trade options as a hedging transaction to reduce production, price, or revenue risk; or

(F) conduct any other activity relating to an activity described in subparagraphs (A) through (E), as determined by the Secretary.

(3) Payment limitation The total amount of payments made to a person (as defined in section 1308(5) [3] of this title) (before the amendment made by section 1603(a)  of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008) under this subsection for any year may not exceed $50,000.

Of the amounts made available to carry out this subsection for a fiscal year, the Commodity Credit Corporation shall use not less than—

(A) In general The Secretary shall carry out this subsection through the Commodity Credit Corporation.

(B) Funding (i) In general Except as provided in clause (ii), the Commodity Credit Corporation shall make available to carry out this subsection not less than $10,000,000 for each fiscal year. (ii) Exception for certain fiscal years For each of fiscal years 2008 through 2014, the Commodity Credit Corporation shall make available to carry out this subsection $15,000,000.

(C) Certain usesOf the amounts made available to carry out this subsection for a fiscal year, the Commodity Credit Corporation shall use not less than— (i) 50 percent to carry out subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C) of paragraph (2) through the Natural Resources Conservation Service; (ii) 10 percent to provide organic certification cost share assistance through the Agricultural Marketing Service; and (iii) 40 percent to conduct activities to carry out subparagraph (F) of paragraph (2) through the Risk Management Agency.

(Feb. 16, 1938, ch. 30, title V, § 524, as added Pub. L. 106–224, title I, § 133, June 20, 2000, 114 Stat. 387; amended Pub. L. 107–171, title II, § 2501, May 13, 2002, 116 Stat. 263; Pub. L. 108–199, div. A, title VII, § 769, Jan. 23, 2004, 118 Stat. 40; Pub. L. 110–234, title I, § 1603(g)(3), title II, § 2801, title VII, § 7511(c)(2), title XII, § 12026, May 22, 2008, 122 Stat. 1011, 1085, 1267, 1390; Pub. L. 110–246, § 4(a), title I, § 1603(g)(3), title II, § 2801, title VII, § 7511(c)(2), title XII, § 12026, June 18, 2008, 122 Stat. 1664, 1739, 1813, 2028, 2152; Pub. L. 112–55, div. A, title VII, § 716(a), Nov. 18, 2011, 125 Stat. 582; Pub. L. 113–79, title I, § 1609(b)(1), title XI, § 11027(c), Feb. 7, 2014, 128 Stat. 709, 977; Pub. L. 115–334, title XI, § 11125(a), title XII, § 12306(b)(3), Dec. 20, 2018, 132 Stat. 4935, 4969.)