Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP)

The Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) — authorized by 7 U.S.C. § 8111 and administered by the USDA Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) through the Farm Service Agency — provides two types of financial assistance to farmers and landowners who supply agricultural and forest residue to biomass energy facilities: matching payments for material delivered to qualified biomass conversion facilities, and establishment and annual payments for growing dedicated energy crops in designated project areas. BCAP is the only Farm Bill program specifically designed to build a domestic supply of renewable biomass feedstocks for bioenergy, biofuels, and biopower production.

Current Rule (2026)

What This Program Does

BCAP addresses the "chicken-and-egg" problem at the root of rural bioenergy development: biomass conversion facilities won't invest unless they have a reliable feedstock supply, and farmers won't grow energy crops or divert residue without a guaranteed buyer. BCAP breaks this impasse with two complementary tools.

Matching Payments (Subpart B) help establish the collection and harvest infrastructure for biomass that exists on agricultural land, nonindustrial private forest land, and federal lands. When an eligible material owner sells and delivers agricultural residue, woody material, or other qualifying biomass to a USDA-approved qualified biomass conversion facility, CCC makes a dollar-for-dollar matching payment — matching what the facility paid — up to a CCC-set rate (historically $45/dry ton for most material). Matching payments are available for up to 2 years from the date CCC makes the first payment. The facility must have a signed agreement with CCC and meet federal, state, and local permitting requirements.

Project Area Contracts (Subpart C) support growing dedicated biomass crops on enrolled agricultural land or nonindustrial private forest land. CCC designates geographic project areas based on proposals from project sponsors (typically a biomass conversion facility, energy company, or agricultural cooperative) that demonstrate a sustainable feedstock supply chain. Within a designated project area, eligible producers can sign CCC contracts to grow approved energy crops — perennial grasses, woody biomass, or other renewable biomass — and receive both establishment payments (covering a share of planting costs) and annual payments (per-acre incentives for maintaining the crop). Contract terms are up to 5 years for annual and non-woody perennial crops and up to 15 years for woody perennial crops.

Key Provisions

• § 1450.100 — Matching payments eligibility: persons with the right to collect or harvest eligible material and who deliver it to a qualified biomass conversion facility may receive matching payments
• § 1450.101 — Qualified biomass conversion facility: must sign a CCC agreement, hold required permits, maintain accurate records of feedstock receipts, and verify conservation plan compliance
• § 1450.103 — Eligible material: biomass collected from National Forest System land, Bureau of Land Management land, non-federal land, or Indian/tribal trust land, following a qualifying conservation or forest stewardship plan
• § 1450.104 — Signup: applications accepted continuously while funds are available; owners must apply to their county FSA office before delivering material
• § 1450.106 — Payment term: matching payments last 2 years from the first CCC payment, regardless of whether the participant changes facilities
• § 1450.200 — Project area contracts: CCC may pay establishment and annual payments to farmers who grow eligible crops within an approved project area
• § 1450.201 — Project area proposals: sponsors submit a proposal with a biomass conversion facility letter confirming it will accept the crop, plus projections of tonnage, local economic effects, and supply chain details
• § 1450.202 — Selection criteria: CCC evaluates expected dry-ton supply, likelihood of use, local economic impact, and carbon sequestration potential when designating project areas
• § 1450.204 — Eligible land: agricultural land or nonindustrial private forest land that is legally and physically capable of growing an eligible crop; ineligible land includes federal and state government land, land converted from native sod, land enrolled in certain other CCC programs that already pay for idling the land
• § 1450.205 — Contract duration: 5 years (annuals/non-woody perennials) or 15 years (woody perennials); establishment period varies by crop
• § 1450.207 — Conservation plan: participants must carry out an approved conservation plan or forest stewardship plan for enrolled land; county FSA enforces compliance

How It Affects You

If you farm land near a biomass or bioenergy facility: the Matching Payments program may let you turn agricultural residue — corn stover, wheat straw, crop residues, or wood chips — into an additional revenue stream without changing your primary crop. Contact your county FSA office to confirm your local area has a qualified biomass conversion facility with a CCC agreement; without a facility agreement, matching payments are not available regardless of what you harvest. The 2-year matching payment window is designed as a startup incentive, not an ongoing subsidy. Matching payments have historically been capped near $45/dry ton, so the math depends on your local facility's offer price and the delivered cost of your residue.

If you have marginal cropland or nonindustrial forest near a proposed biomass project: BCAP project area contracts can make growing dedicated energy crops economically viable on land that doesn't pencil out for row crops. Perennial energy grasses (miscanthus, switchgrass) and woody crops (short-rotation coppice, hybrid poplar) typically require 2-5 years before reaching full yield; BCAP establishment payments and early annual payments bridge that gap. Contract lengths of up to 5 years for annual and non-woody perennial crops, and up to 15 years for woody perennial crops, reflect the long investment horizon for dedicated energy crops. Before signing a contract, confirm the project area sponsor (the biomass facility) has a viable offtake arrangement — BCAP enrollment doesn't guarantee a buyer if the facility doesn't proceed.

If you're a biomass facility developer or project sponsor: the path to project area designation runs through CCC. Submit a project area proposal with a credible supply chain analysis, letters from landowners or producer groups, and evidence that your facility is or will be operational. CCC evaluates proposals competitively when funding is limited. Getting BCAP designation for your supply shed can be a significant advantage in attracting USDA financing and locking in feedstock supply. The Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) production credit in the Inflation Reduction Act has increased interest in agricultural biomass feedstocks — BCAP project area designations that support SAF feedstock supply chains are attracting new attention from facility developers in 2025-2026.

Statutory Authority

This program implements:

• 7 U.S.C. § 8111 — Biomass Crop Assistance Program (Farm Bill authorization for CCC to make matching payments and project area contract payments to support development of biomass energy supply chains on agricultural and forest land)

Recent Rulemakings

• 2015 (80 FR 10573): revised BCAP regulations to clarify matching payment eligibility, tighten conservation plan requirements, and update project area designation procedures
• 2010 (75 FR 66234): original final rule implementing BCAP following the 2008 Farm Bill authorization

Companion Program: Biodiesel Fuel Education

7 CFR Part 2903 — Biodiesel Fuel Education Program: competitive grants to eligible nonprofit organizations for programs promoting the benefits of biodiesel fuel (implements 7 U.S.C. § 8104):

• § 2903.3 — Eligibility: only nonprofit organizations are eligible; for-profit entities, universities, and government agencies cannot apply directly, though they may participate as collaborators on nonprofit-led proposals
• § 2903.4 — Evaluation criteria: applications are scored on three criteria — (1) relevance of the proposed project to biodiesel fuel education goals, (2) reasonableness of the proposed approach and timeline, and (3) technical merit as demonstrated by the applicants' qualifications and project design; peer review panels include biodiesel specialists, agricultural scientists, and extension educators
• § 2903.5 — Application receipt confirmation: NIFA must notify applicants of receipt within 60 days of the submission deadline; late applications are not considered
• § 2903.9 — Award timing: grant awards must allow projects to begin before September 30 of the fiscal year in which funds are awarded; multi-year awards are structured with annual performance reporting requirements

The Biodiesel Fuel Education Program funds outreach campaigns, training workshops, fleet conversion demonstrations, and educational materials that help farmers, fleet operators, and rural businesses understand biodiesel as a drop-in fuel alternative. Awards are typically in the $100,000–$500,000 range and are administered by NIFA rather than CCC. While BCAP funds biomass supply chains upstream, the Biodiesel Education Program addresses the demand side — building the market awareness and technical capacity that makes biomass-to-energy conversion economically viable.

Climate-Smart Agriculture Technical Guidelines for Biofuel Feedstocks

7 CFR Part 2100 — Technical Guidelines for Climate-Smart Agriculture Crops Used as Biofuel Feedstocks: USDA technical standards for measuring, reporting, and verifying the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions profile — or "carbon intensity" (CI) — of agricultural crops grown using climate-smart practices and sold into biofuel supply chains (implements 16 U.S.C. §§ 3845, 3846):

• § 2100.010 — Supply chain scope: every entity in the biofuel feedstock supply chain — farms, first points of aggregation (grain elevators, aggregators), intermediary traders, crop processors, and biofuel refiners — must follow these guidelines if they handle "reduced-CI crops" grown under approved CSA practices; the chain runs from the farm gate to the biorefinery
• § 2100.011 — Three crop categories: CSA crops are grown using one or more approved climate-smart practices and earn a lower CI value; conventional crops are grown without those practices; both may be physically mixed — the portion sourced from CSA farms is tracked separately through mass-balance accounting
• § 2100.012 — Approved CSA practices by crop: for field corn, qualifying practices include no-till, reduced-till, cover crops, nitrification inhibitors, split in-season nitrogen application, and no fall nitrogen; for soybeans, no-till qualifies; for sorghum, approved practices are similar to corn; practices must be documented and verifiable through farm records
• § 2100.020 — Farm-level carbon intensity calculation: farms must calculate a CI value per bushel for each reduced-CI crop using the USDA-approved methodology; the CI represents total carbon-equivalent emissions from production inputs (fertilizer, fuel, tillage energy) divided by output; a lower CI means more carbon-efficient production and may qualify the crop for premium prices in markets sensitive to GHG content (e.g., California LCFS or federal SAF credits)
• § 2100.030–2100.035 — Chain of custody recordkeeping: each entity must use mass-balance accounting to track quantities and CI values of reduced-CI crops through the supply chain; records must show incoming and outgoing transactions; processors must document crushing yields and CI attribution; biofuel refiners must track the CI of all reduced-CI feedstocks received and link them to the CI of the biofuel produced
• § 2100.040 — Annual third-party audits: first points of aggregation, intermediaries, and biofuel refiners must undergo annual audits by ISO 14065-accredited independent third-party verifiers; auditors verify mass-balance systems, CI record accuracy, and compliance with reporting requirements; farms are not required to undergo third-party audit under Part 2100 but must maintain records supporting verifier sampling

Part 2100 is USDA's regulatory infrastructure for the agricultural side of the U.S. biofuel carbon economy. Without a standardized, auditable system for calculating and verifying the carbon intensity of biofuel feedstocks, agricultural producers have no mechanism to capture the premium value of lower-CI crops in markets like California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) or the federal Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) tax credit (45Z), which pay more for lower-CI fuel. Part 2100 creates that mechanism — allowing a corn farmer who adopts cover crops and no-till to document, verify, and sell the GHG benefit to the biofuel refinery that converts the crop to ethanol or SAF. The chain-of-custody framework prevents CI fraud by requiring every link in the supply chain to account for what it received, processed, and sold. This is a relatively new regulatory framework — it represents USDA's first comprehensive CI measurement system for agricultural biofuels and its integration with the Inflation Reduction Act's bioenergy incentives.

Pending Legislation

BCAP is authorized through the Farm Bill (7 U.S.C. § 8111). The Agricultural Extension Act of 2024 extended the 2018 Farm Bill through fiscal year 2025, maintaining BCAP authorization while comprehensive reauthorization remained pending. Farm Bill 2025 negotiations will determine BCAP's structure and funding level for the next five-year cycle. Key considerations:

• Expanded funding: Bioenergy and rural energy advocates have pushed Congress to fund BCAP closer to its authorization ceiling — annual appropriations have ranged from roughly $3–15 million in recent years, far below what the program could theoretically deploy. Farm Bill proposals include raising appropriations to $25–50 million to support more project area designations and matching payment programs.
• SAF feedstock integration: The Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) production credit in the Inflation Reduction Act (45Z) has renewed congressional interest in agricultural biomass supply chains. Proposals to integrate BCAP with the USDA's existing bioenergy programs (REAP, Rural Energy for America) and to prioritize SAF feedstock crops in project area designations are under discussion in Farm Bill reauthorization.
• Conservation program coordination: The Inflation Reduction Act allocated $19.5 billion to climate-smart agriculture through existing EQIP, CRP, and ACEP frameworks — without directly expanding BCAP. Farm Bill advocates are pushing for explicit BCAP-climate linkages, including allowing eligible biomass energy crops to qualify for both BCAP payments and conservation program incentives without double-counting.

Recent Developments

• Limited program utilization: BCAP has consistently underutilized its authorization. Annual appropriations have remained at $3–15 million in recent years — far below what the program could theoretically support. The fundamental barrier is the chicken-and-egg problem: without operational biomass conversion facilities holding CCC agreements, Matching Payment signup is unavailable; without reliable feedstock commitments, facilities are reluctant to invest in capacity. USDA reports fewer than a dozen active Matching Payment programs nationally at any given time.
• Farm Bill extension (2024): Congress passed a one-year extension of the 2018 Farm Bill through September 2025, preserving BCAP authorization. Comprehensive reauthorization expected in 2025-2026 will determine BCAP's funding and structure for the next five years. Prior Farm Bills (2014, 2018) each made modest BCAP changes but didn't resolve the structural funding gap.
• SAF demand renews interest in dedicated energy crops: The SAF production credit (IRA §§ 13203, 45Z) and aviation industry decarbonization commitments have created new commercial demand for agricultural biomass feedstocks — particularly corn stover, miscanthus, and woody biomass — as potential SAF precursors. Several SAF project developers have explored BCAP project area proposals as part of their feedstock strategy. Whether BCAP can meaningfully contribute to SAF supply chains depends on facility economics and the matching payment rate's competitiveness against open-market feedstock prices.
• DOGE and FSA staffing reductions: The Farm Service Agency administers BCAP at the county level. DOGE-directed FSA staffing reductions in 2025 affected field office capacity for outreach, application processing, and project area review. Producers and facility operators interested in BCAP participation should verify current processing timelines with their county FSA office before committing to project timelines that depend on BCAP enrollment.