Final Agency Determination: FAD-043

Subject: Request dated January 7, 2005, requesting a Final Agency Determination for the 2005 crop year (for crops with a contract change date of August 31, 2004, or later) and subsequent crop years, regarding the interpretation of section 6(d) of the Common Crop Insurance Policy Basic Provisions (Basic Provisions), published at 7 C.F.R. 457.8. This request is pursuant to 7 C.F.R. part 400, subpart X.

Sections 6(d)(4) and (5) of the Basic Provisions state, as here pertinent:

6. Report of Acreage

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(d) Regarding the ability to revise an acreage report you have submitted to us:

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(4) If you request an acreage measurement prior to the acreage reporting date and submit documentation of such request and an acreage report with estimated acreage by the acreage reporting date, you must provide the measurement to us, we will revise your acreage report if there is a discrepancy . . .

(5) If there is an irreconcilable difference between:

(i) The acreage measured by FSA or a measuring service and our on-farm measurement, our on-farm measurement will be used; or

(ii) The acreage measured by a measuring service, other than our on-farm measurement, and FSA, the FSA measurement will be used . . .

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The requestor asked that the Final Agency Determination interpret the term "measurement" as used in section 6(d).

The requestor interprets the terms "measurement" as used in section 6(d)(4) and "FSA measurement" as used in section 6(d)(5) to refer to a physical, on-farm measurement of the subject cropland acres, whether performed by FSA or a third party measurement service. Accordingly, digitized measurements prepared by the FSA that do not entail an on-farm assessment of the acreage are not adequate or sufficient measurements for purposes of sections 6(d)(4) and (5).

The Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) disagrees with the interpretation of section 6(d)(4) and (5) that digitized measurements prepared by the FSA that do not entail an on-farm assessment of the acreage are not adequate or sufficient measurements for purposes of section 6(d)(4) and (5).

The term "measurement" as used in section 6(d) has the common meaning of the term which means "the act of measuring," "extent, size, etc., ascertained by measuring," or "a system of measuring or measures." Since FSA, or a measuring service, digitized measurements are a system of measuring, they would be considered a "measurement" under the terms of section 6(d). In addition to digitized measurements, FSA measurements would also include any other system of measuring used by FSA, including on-farm measurements. This interpretation is supported by section 6(d)(5), which references both on-farm measurements and FSA measurements which suggest they are not necessarily the same.

In accordance with 7 C.F.R. 400.765(c), this constitutes the Final Agency Determination and is binding on all participants in the Federal crop insurance program for the 2005 crop year (for crops with a contract change date of August 31, 2004 or later) and succeeding crop years. Any appeal of this decision must be in accordance with 7 C.F.R. 400.768(g).

Date of Issue: April 6, 2005