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Title 7, AgricultureRelease 119-110

§7218 Planting Flexibility

Title 7 › CHAPTER 100 — AGRICULTURAL MARKET TRANSITION › SUBCHAPTER II — PRODUCTION FLEXIBILITY CONTRACTS › § 7218

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

Farmers may plant any crop on acres enrolled in a farm contract, but fruits and vegetables are mostly banned. Lentils, mung beans, and dry peas are allowed. Fruits or vegetables can be planted only in three cases: when the Secretary finds a region has a history of double-cropping there; when a farm has a past of planting fruits or vegetables on contract acres (but the farm’s contract payment is reduced by one acre for each acre planted); or when a producer has an established planting history for a specific fruit or vegetable, limited to their average annual plantings in the 1991 through 1995 crop years (excluding years with no plantings), with the same one-acre payment reduction for each acre planted.

Full Legal Text

Title 7, §7218

Agriculture, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Permitted crops
Subject to subsection (b), any commodity or crop may be planted on contract acreage on a farm.
(b)Limitations and exceptions regarding fruits and vegetables
(1)Limitations
The planting of fruits and vegetables (other than lentils, mung beans, and dry peas) shall be prohibited on contract acreage.
(2)Exceptions
Paragraph (1) shall not limit the planting of a fruit or vegetable—
(A)in any region in which there is a history of double-cropping of contract commodities with fruits or vegetables, as determined by the Secretary, in which case the double-cropping shall be permitted;
(B)on a farm that the Secretary determines has a history of planting fruits or vegetables on contract acreage, except that a contract payment shall be reduced by an acre for each acre planted to the fruit or vegetable; or
(C)by a producer who the Secretary determines has an established planting history of a specific fruit or vegetable, except that—
(i)the quantity planted may not exceed the producer’s average annual planting history of the fruit or vegetable in the 1991 through 1995 crop years (excluding any crop year in which no plantings were made), as determined by the Secretary; and
(ii)a contract payment shall be reduced by an acre for each acre planted to the fruit or vegetable.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Contract Payments for Wild Rice Acreage Pub. L. 106–78, title VII, § 727, Oct. 22, 1999, 113 Stat. 1164, provided that: “None of the funds appropriated or otherwise available to the Department of Agriculture in fiscal year 2000 or thereafter may be used to administer the provision of contract payments to a producer under the Agricultural Market Transition Act (7 U.S.C. 7201 et seq.) for contract acreage on which wild rice is planted unless the contract payment is reduced by an acre for each contract acre planted to wild rice.” Similar provisions were contained in the following prior appropriations acts: Pub. L. 105–277, div. A, § 101(a) [title VII, § 727], Oct. 21, 1998, 112 Stat. 2681, 2681–28. Pub. L. 105–86, title VII, § 734, Nov. 18, 1997, 111 Stat. 2110.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

7 U.S.C. § 7218

Title 7, Agriculture

Last Updated

Sep 22, 2026

Release point: 119-110