INFORMATIONAL MEMORANDUM R&D-96-050         
          
TO:      All Reinsured Companies
         All Risk Management Field Offices
         FSA Headquarters, Program Delivery & Field Operations
          
FROM:    Tim B. Witt
         Director
         Research and Development Division
                    
SUBJECT: Extension of the Pilot Program Providing Assigned Yields for New 
         Producers for the 1997 Crop Year
          
          
Section 508(h)(8) of the Federal Crop Insurance Reform Act directed the 
Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) to establish a pilot program
to provide assigned yields for new producers for the 1995 and 1996 crop years.  
This pilot program provided an eligible new producer participating in the 
pilot program with a yield equal to 110 percent of the transitional yield 
otherwise established by the Corporation.  The intent of this provision was 
to decrease the risk posed by new producers to lenders, thereby making credit 
more accessible to new producers.   FCIC is to report to Congress on the 
ability of the pilot program to increase credit availability for new 
producers.
          
The 1995 data have been collected and the Economic Research Service is to 
study the extent to which the program met its goals.  This study is to be 
completed by the end of this calendar year and will include the 1996 data.
          
A decision on whether or not to continue the pilot program for the 1997 crop 
year has been made.  The pilot program will be continued during crop year 
1997 for new producers in selected counties to allow the study to be 
completed and to allow continuity in case the pilot program is extended, 
expanded, or made permanent.