Education and risk management assistance

Subject to the amounts made available under paragraph (4), the Secretary, acting through the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, shall carry out the program established under paragraph (2). The Secretary, acting through the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, shall establish a program under which competitive grants are made to qualified public and private entities (including land grant colleges, cooperative extension services, and colleges or universities), as determined by the Secretary, for the purpose of educating agricultural producers and providing technical assistance to agricultural producers on a full range of farm viability and risk management activities, including futures, options, agricultural trade options, crop insurance, business planning, enterprise analysis, transfer and succession planning, management coaching, market assessment, cash flow analysis, cash forward contracting, debt reduction, production diversification, farm resources risk reduction, farm financial benchmarking, conservation activities, and other risk management strategies. A grant under this paragraph shall be awarded on the basis of merit and shall be subject to peer or merit review. Funds for a grant under this paragraph shall be available to the Secretary for obligation for a 2-year period. The Secretary may use not more than 4 percent of the funds made available for grants under this paragraph for administrative costs incurred by the Secretary in carrying out this paragraph. In carrying out the program established under paragraph (2), the Secretary shall place special emphasis on farm viability and risk management strategies (including farm financial benchmarking, business planning and technical assistance, market assessment, transfer and succession planning, and crop insurance participation), education, and outreach specifically targeted at— farmers or ranchers that— From the insurance fund established under section 1516(c) of this title, there is transferred for the partnerships for risk management education program established under paragraph (2), $10,000,000 for fiscal year 2019 and each subsequent fiscal year, of which not less than $5,000,000 shall be used to carry out paragraph (3)(E). The Secretary shall provide financial assistance to producers in the States of Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming. A producer may use financial assistance provided under this subsection to— construct or improve— mitigate financial risk through production or marketing diversification or resource conservation practices, including— The total amount of payments made to a person (as defined in section 1308(5) 33 See References in Text note below. of this title) (before the amendment made by section 1603(a) 3 of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008) under this subsection for any year may not exceed $50,000. The Secretary shall carry out this subsection through the Commodity Credit Corporation. Except as provided in clause (ii), the Commodity Credit Corporation shall make available to carry out this subsection not less than $10,000,000 for each fiscal year. For each of fiscal years 2008 through 2014, the Commodity Credit Corporation shall make available to carry out this subsection $15,000,000. Of the amounts made available to carry out this subsection for a fiscal year, the Commodity Credit Corporation shall use not less than—