As Congress gears up to write a new farm bill next year, income safety net protection is deteriorating in the program that covers most farmers in Iowa and in other parts of the Corn Belt, according to a new analysis by American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) Director of Market Intelligence John Newton.

By fiscal 2019, the final year of the current 2014 farm bill, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects a decline of 63 percent in corn safety net payments for farmers enrolled the Agriculture Risk Coverage-County (ARC-CO) when compared to levels paid in the 2015, the bill’s first year. Soybean ARC-CO payments are expected to decline 12 percent for soybeans during that same period.

The fiscal pain, Newton said, will be widespread. More than 80 percent of U.S. counties with corn, soybeans or wheat bases are expected to...