National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson testified last week at a House Ag Subcommittee hearing and urged lawmakers to focus on commodity programs that need more attention in the next farm bill. Johnson says farmers have expressed concerns about several problems with the ARC County program that need correcting.

He also told subcommittee members changes are needed in the PLC program to give farmers more price protection.

Johnson says even though crop insurance is a popular and successful risk management tool, it too could be tweaked to make it more effective.

Johnson says all of those changes are critical to assist farmers in dealing with a downturn in farm income and higher costs going forward.