---
kind: "section"
citation: "7 U.S.C. § 7218"
title: "7"
title_heading: "Agriculture"
number: "7218"
heading: "Planting flexibility"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/7/7218"
units:
  - "Chapter 100 — Agricultural Market Transition"
  - "Subchapter II — Production Flexibility Contracts"
---

# §7218. Planting flexibility

- (a) **Permitted crops—** Subject to [subsection (b)](#b), any commodity or crop may be planted on [contract acreage](/usc/7/7202.md?p=4) on a farm.
- (b) **Limitations and exceptions regarding fruits and vegetables—**
  - (1) **Limitations—** The planting of fruits and vegetables (other than lentils, mung beans, and dry peas) shall be prohibited on [contract acreage](/usc/7/7202.md?p=4).
  - (2) **Exceptions—** [Paragraph (1)](#b-1) shall not limit the planting of a fruit or vegetable—
    - (A) in any region in which there is a history of double-cropping of [contract commodities](/usc/7/7202.md?p=5) with fruits or vegetables, as determined by the [Secretary](/usc/7/7202.md?p=13), in which case the double-cropping shall be permitted;
    - (B) on a farm that the [Secretary](/usc/7/7202.md?p=13) determines has a history of planting fruits or vegetables on [contract acreage](/usc/7/7202.md?p=4), except that a [contract payment](/usc/7/7202.md?p=6) shall be reduced by an acre for each acre planted to the fruit or vegetable; or
    - (C) by a [producer](/usc/7/7202.md?p=12) who the [Secretary](/usc/7/7202.md?p=13) determines has an established planting history of a specific fruit or vegetable, except that—
      - (i) the quantity planted may not exceed the [producer](/usc/7/7202.md?p=12)’s average annual planting history of the fruit or vegetable in the 1991 through 1995 crop years (excluding any crop year in which no plantings were made), as determined by the [Secretary](/usc/7/7202.md?p=13); and
      - (ii) a [contract payment](/usc/7/7202.md?p=6) shall be reduced by an acre for each acre planted to the fruit or vegetable.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 104–127, title I, § 118, Apr. 4, 1996, 110 Stat. 904.)

## Notes

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Contract Payments for Wild Rice Acreage

Pub. L. 106–78, title VII, § 727, Oct. 22, 1999, 113 Stat. 1164, provided that: “None of the funds appropriated or otherwise available to the Department of Agriculture in fiscal year 2000 or thereafter may be used to administer the provision of contract payments to a producer under the Agricultural Market Transition Act (7 U.S.C. 7201 et seq.) for contract acreage on which wild rice is planted unless the contract payment is reduced by an acre for each contract acre planted to wild rice.”

Similar provisions were contained in the following prior appropriations acts:

Pub. L. 105–277, div. A, § 101(a) [title VII, § 727], Oct. 21, 1998, 112 Stat. 2681, 2681–28.

Pub. L. 105–86, title VII, § 734, Nov. 18, 1997, 111 Stat. 2110.