As a graduate student workmg towards a Ph.D., in both economics and statistics, Chad Hart faces a lot of challenges. When he ISn't busy on his dissenation. he tS busy wnh proJeCt research and wriung at the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD).

This year has seen the emergence of two new crop revenue insurance products: Income Protection (lP) and Crop Revenue Coverage (CRC). With emphasis on revenue, the new products depart from traditional multiple-peril crop insurance (MPCI), that provides protection only against yield shortfalls.

Every summer the agricultural sector anticipates the harvest and speculates on how much grain will be produced. Ac; time passes, more information is gathered about probable yields, harvested area, and production in the U.S. and the rest of the northern hemisphere. The information this year may be more critical because of the current high crop prices and low stockholding situation.

Production Flexibility Contract (PFC) acres enrolled for fiscal year (FY) 1996 were released by USDA on August 19, 1996. From these data, and what we know about the payment stream, we calculated the payment rates by bushel, acre, and state. Total payments by state under the 1996 FALR Act were also calculated. These figures provide a comparison by state and commodity.