I:

IADDP: Indian Acute Distress Donation Program

ICA: International Coffee Agreement

ICA: International Commodity Agreement

ICA: International Coffee Agreement

ICCA: International Cocoa Agreement

ICD: International Cooperation and Development

Ice cream land: Farmland that is easily worked and has few management problems.

ICM: Integrated Crop Management

ICOP: International Committee on Organization and Policy (NASULGC)

IDA: International Dairy Arrangement

Identification methods: Includes ear tags, biometrics, brands and brand inspection records, and breed registry certificates.

Identity standards: See Standards of identity.

Identity-preserved (IP): See Identity-preserved specialty grain.

Identity-preserved specialty grain: Identity preserved (IP) grain crops that are grown and handled under controlled conditions (rigid production, segregation, and identification practices) and delivered for speciality use. Typically, end-users are seeking specific characteristics (physical or chemical) that are needed by certain industries to meet a very specific need. Qualified producers must follow rigid cultural and handling practices required for quality and uniformity. Typically, a contract grower agrees to produce, harvest, store, and deliver the grain without mixing with other varieties. The long process begins with the planting of pure, certified seed of a known variety, usually planted on isolated land that has not grown that crop for at least a year. Third-party record keeping, field inspections, and lab testing services are often required to monitor the IP process. IP production may involve everything from extra cleaning of combines and other equipment to strict record keeping on the cleanliness of storage, bagging, and containerized cargo shipments. Also Niche market(ing) (grains).

IFAFS: Initiative for Future Agricultural and Food Systems

IFFS: Integrated food and farming systems

IFMP: Integrated Farm Management Program

IFR: In-forest residues

IFS: Integrated farming systems

IGA: International Grains Agreement

IMF: International Monetary Fund

Immunologist: One who studies the immune system of animals.

Import barriers: Quotas, tariffs, and embargoes used by a country to restrict the quantity or value of a good that may enter that country. Import barriers other than tariffs have been called nontariff trade barriers or NTBs.

Import quota(s): The maximum quantity or value of a commodity allowed to enter a country during a specified time period. A quota may apply to amounts of a commodity from specific countries.

Import restrictions: See Import barriers.

Import(s): The goods and services that a country buys or otherwise obtains from other countries.

Imported dairy product: Under the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 1505), any dairy product that is imported into the U.S., including milk, cream, and fresh and dried dairy products; butter and butterfat mixtures; cheese; and casein and mixtures.

Imported fire ant(s): Imported from South America, fire ants are a serious pest to livestock because of their tunnels and mounds and their dangerous ability to swarm and produce painful, poisonous stings. Fire ant mounds interfere with the use of farming equipment.Fire ants also feed on the tender stems of young plants.

Impoundment Control Act of 1974: Title X of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 that prescribes procedures for Congressional review and control over impoundments proposed by the executive branch.

Impoundment(s): (1) An executive branch action or inaction that delays or withholds the expenditure or obligation of budget authority provided by law. (2) A closed basin, naturally formed or artificially built, which is dammed or excavated for the retention of water, sediment, or waste.

Improved: Plants, seedlings, trees, and seeds that have been genetically selected or bred to increase growth potential, disease resistance, or other desirable characteristics.

In the beef: The selling of cattle based on grade and yield of the carcass rather than on actual live weight at the feedlot minus a factor for shrinkage. In selling cattle “in the beef,” the cattle owner pays for shipping the cattle to the packing plant and assumes the risk for any animal condemnation. Cattle with high-quality carcass traits will typically provide the seller with greater return when sold in this manner.

In-charges: Warehouse charges for receiving a commodity.

In-forest residues (IFR): Harvest slash, thinnings, cull material, and other woody biomass from forest lands. In-forest residues do not include biomass residues from forest products processing operations such as sawdust, bark, or paper mill fines.

In-kind payments: Program payments made to participants with Commodity Credit Corporation commodities delivered at a warehouse or by transferring a negotiable warehouse receipt. See Generic commodity certificates, and Negotiable marketing certificates. In-process sugar: (1) Sugars and syrups, most commonly in the form of thick juice or molasses (beets) or raw cane sugar, that can be readily stored to better facilitate orderly marketing. (2) Under the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 1401(f)), sugars and syrups being processed into raw cane sugar and refined beet sugar. For purposes of the sugar program, in-process sugar does not include raw sugar, liquid sugar, invert sugar, invert syrup, or other finished product otherwise eligible for loan.

In-process sugar: (1) Sugars and syrups, most commonly in the form of thick juice or molasses (beets) or raw cane sugar, that can be readily stored to better facilitate orderly marketing. (2) Under the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 1401(f)), sugars and syrups being processed into raw cane sugar and refined beet sugar. For purposes of the sugar program, in-process sugar does not include raw sugar, liquid sugar, invert sugar, invert syrup, or other finished product otherwise eligible for loan.

In-quota: Imports within the lower tier tariff under a tariff-rate quota. See Over-quota.

In-the-money option: In commodity options trading, an option having intrinsic value. A call option is in-the-money if its strike price is below the current price of the underlying futures contract. A put option is in-the-money if its strike price is above the current price of theunderlying futures contract. See At-the-money option, Intrinsic value, and Out-the-money option.

Inbreeding; inbred: Production of offspring from parents more closely related than the average of a population. Inbreeding increases the proportion of homozygous gene pairs and decreases the proportion of heterozygous gene pairs. Also, inbreeding increases prepotency and facilitates expression of undesirable recessive genes.

Incentive payments: (1) A deficiency payment that increased with the quality of the commodity. It was used previously in the case of high-quality wool. (2) Direct payments made to farmers and ranchers to encourage the adoption of land management practices or a comprehensive nutrient management plan under the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. (3) Sec. 1616 of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 authorizes the USDA to provide incentive payments to producers of hard white wheat for the 2003 through 2005 crop years. See Hard White Wheat Incentive Payments (HWWIP). (4) See Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP). (5) See Lamb Meat Adjustment Assistance Program (LMAAP).

Incidental Take Permit: See Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP).

Incinerator: Any device used to burn solid or liquid residues or wastes as a method of disposal. In some incinerators, provisions are made for recovering the heat produced.

Inclined belt(s): See Belt(s).

Income limit: See Adjusted gross income limit; adjusted gross income cap.

Income protection (IP): A multiperil pilot program of revenue insurance designed to protect producers against reductions in gross farm income when a crop’s price or yield declines from early-season expectations based on actual production history.

Income support payments: See Counter-cyclical payment(s), Deficiency payment(s), and Direct payment(s).

Income support program(s): Government programs designed to enhance farm incomes and ensure adequate resource returns. Previously, producers received direct payments, known as deficiency payments, if market prices fell below the established target price. Suchprograms were designed so as not to affect the price of a commodity. Income supports under the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 were provided through production flexibility contracts. Under the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, income supports include direct payments and counter-cyclical payments.

Income support(s): Government payments intended to increase producer income without having an impact on commodity prices. See Counter-cyclical payment(s), Deficiency payment(s), and Direct payment(s).

Incremental funding: The appropriation by Congress in one fiscal year of only a portion of the estimated total cost of a project, program, or activity that may take several years to complete and requires periodic or intermittent expenditures over that period of time. SeeFull funding.

Indemnity programs: Payments made under certain programs to producers who sustain losses as a result of pesticides, nuclear radiation fallout, residues, or toxic substances. See Dairy indemnity payment program.

Indemnity(ies): The amount that a producer receives as settlement on a loss claim. In terms of crop insurance, it is calculated by multiplying the price election by the number of commodity units of loss below the yield guarantee.

Independent culling level(s): Culling selection based on livestock meeting specific levels of performance for each trait included in a breeder’s selection program.

Index herd: The herd where an animal currently resides or the last herd in which an animal resided.

Indexed Income Protection: When calculating risk management income protection insurance using actual yield history, the elimination of possible formula distortion caused by the inclusion of actual low yields. Indexed income protection uses a formula that indexes individual yields to county yields to mitigate the distortions.

Indian Acute Distress Donation Program (IADDP): A joint USDA and Bureau of Indian Affairs program of direct disaster donations to Indian producers who suffered disaster-related losses. The IADDP provided feed assistance for livestock located on economically distressed reservations or other Indian lands used for grazing. The program was suspended by the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996.

Indian reservation (Extension agent) program: See Extension Indian Reservation Program (EIRP).

Indicator species: An organism that occurs only in areas with specific environmental conditions. Because of their narrow ecological tolerance, the presence or absence of these species on a site is a good indicator of environmental conditions.

Indicator(s): Measurements used in determining the degree of program progress that has been made toward achieving an objective.

Indifference curve: As part of demand theory, a curve that connects all of the combinations of goods that give an individual equal utility. An individual offered a choice among any of the combinations on a curve would be indifferent as to which combination is chosen.

Indigenous coping strategies: Activities and behavior patterns adopted by households under the stress of food insecurity, including reducing food consumption, engaging in wider-ranging migration in search of labor opportunities and food assistance, dry season farming, sending children off to stay with distant relatives, reducing recreational activity, and selling assets including tools, land, and homes.

Indigenous nongovernmental organization: A foreign organization, established under the laws of that foreign country but not primarily an agency or instrumentality of a foreign government, that is working at the local level to solve development problems in the foreign country in which it is located.

Indirect additive(s): Substance that becomes part of food in trace amounts due to packaging, storage, or handling. See Additive(s), and Direct additive(s).

Indirect liquefaction: Conversion of biomass to a liquid fuel through a synthesis gas intermediate step.

Indirect nonpotable water reuse: The use of reclaimed water that had been discharged to receiving waters, either surface or underground, that is then drawn, generally after additional treatment, for distribution for nonpotable uses.

Indirect potable water reuse: The advanced treatment of reclaimed water for augmentation of a local reservoir from which water intended for potable uses is drawn.

Indirect reuse (reclaimed water): Reclaimed water that is returned to a river or underground reservoir that inadvertently becomes part of the water withdrawn for additional uses.

Indirect(s); indirect costs: For research and other sponsored projects, those costs not readily identified with a single, specific project or organizational activity, but rather common costs incurred for the joint benefit of more than one project and activity. Indirect costs are usually grouped into common pools and charged to benefitting projects or activities through an established rate. Also known as overhead, examples include rent, security, utilities, and administrative expenses such as accounting and human resources departmental costs. Under the NARETPA of 1977 (Sec. 1462; 7 U.S.C. § 3310), indirect costs shall not exceed 19 percent of the total federal funds provided under competitive grant awards, with exceptions. An alternative method of calculation of this limitation is to multiply total direct costs by 23.456 percent. However, recent agricultural appropriations acts have increased the limit to 20 percent (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005, Division A, Title VI, General Provisions, Sec. 710). See Direct costs.

Individual animal identification: A means of identification that differentiates one animal from another. Official individual animal identification uses APHIS-approved methodology.

Individual cross-compliance: Under the former peanut price-support program no net cost mandate, the net gains of producers in one region were liable for helping to cover losses in any of the regions. A more equitable sharing formula, targeted to funds within a region where the losses occurred, was adopted in the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996. The prioritized list of eight offsets began with reducing proceeds due producers under the disaster transfer provision, and then reducing the proceeds due producers that were attributable to buy-back sales. Collectively, these two items on the priority list were known as individual cross-compliance. See Peanut (price-support) program.

Individual farm plan (crop insurance): See i>Actual Production History (yield) insurance (APH), Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR), Crop revenue coverage (CRC), Income protection (IP), Revenue assurance (RA), and Revenue assurance with harvest price option (RA-HPO; RA-HP).

Individual handler pool(ing): A method of milk pooling in which the price paid to producers is calculated for each handler based on how milk is used by the handler. In this type of pool, producers shipping to different handlers in the same market can receive different prices, depending upon the utilization of the milk by the individual buyers.

Individual Risk Management Accounts (IRMA): A risk management proposal for farmers and ranchers. IRMA accounts would be voluntary and contain a combination of deferred tax and government matching deposit incentives. IRMA deposits would be deductible from pretax income with deposits and interest taxable after withdrawal. A producer wishing to participate could deposit a minimum of two percent of Schedule F gross farm income each year into an IRMA account. The federal government would match the producer’s deposit, using dollars that would have been used to subsidize the producer’s federal crop insurance. IRMA producers would receive catastrophic coverage, but additional federal crop insurance purchased would have to be non-subsidized. As proposed, producers could maintain maximum IRMA balances of no more than 150 percent of the producer’s three-year average Schedule F gross farm income. The IRMA proposal contained a specific withdrawal trigger that only allowed producers to make withdrawals if their current-year Schedule F gross farm income fell below 80 percent of the average for the previous three years. A withdrawal could only bring the income up to the 80 percent level. See Farmer savings account(s).

Induced molting: See Forced molting.

Industrial crop(s): Crops, such as kenaf and guayule, grown principally for industrial rather than food, feed, and fiber uses.

Industrial hydrocarbons and alcohols (research grants): The USDA is authorized under the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (Sec. 1419(d)) (7 U.S.C. 3154(d)) to provide research grants to improve the production and marketing of industrial hydrocarbons andtriglycerides, derived from agricultural commodities and forest products, alcohol fuels, animal fats and oils for diesel fuel and petrochemical substitutes, industrial oilseed crops, and biomass fuels, for the purposes of stabilizing and expanding themarket for such commodities and products and expanding the nation’s supply. Grants can also be made for research and development of the most economical and commercially feasible means of producing, collecting, and transporting agricultural crops, wastes, residues, and byproducts for use as feedstocks for the production of alcohol and other forms of biomass energy and the development of new markets for byproducts. The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 7134) extended to FY2007 research on such products, and added animal fats and oils to the list of potential sources for diesel fuel and petrochemical substitutes (Sec. 7209(b)(1)), and triglycerides and industrial hydrocarbons (Sec. 7209(b)(2)).

Industrial wood: All roundwood products except fuelwood.

Industrialization of agriculture: The structural change of agriculture caused by the concentration of ownership and control of the food system – the entire food chain from seed to table.

Inedible eggs: Eggs of the following descriptions are classed as inedible: black rots, yellow rots, white rots, mixed rots (addled eggs), sour eggs, eggs with green whites, eggs with stuck yolks, moldy eggs, musty eggs, eggs showing blood rings, eggs containing embryo chicks (at or beyond the blood ring state), and any eggs that are adulterated as such term is defined by the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938.

Inelastic demand: A market situation in which a change in price will bring about a smaller proportional change in the amount purchased. For example, when demand is very inelastic, consumers tend to buy and consume about the same amount of a product regardless of the change in price, with the result that less total expenditures are made for a large output than for a small one. An elastic demand has the opposite characteristics. Generally, those goods that have no close substitutes are the mostinelastic in demand. Most agricultural commodities have inelastic demands; the demand for all food is very inelastic. See Elastic demand.

Inelastic supply: Supply is inelastic if the change in production is relatively less than the change in price. Time is the most important factor in determining the elasticity of supply; the shorter the time period, the more inelastic supply will be. See Elastic supply.

Inelastic; inelasticity: In general, in variables that are related, if one variable changes, the other related variable changes also, but less proportionally than the change in the first variable. In this case, large changes in the first variable cause relatively smaller changes in the second variable. An inelastic relationship between two variables is not a very responsive, or stretchable, relationship.

Ineligible land: Under the Wetland Reserve Program, easements may not be acquired on land that contains timber stands established under the Conservation Reserve Program, or pasture land established to trees under the Conservation Reserve Program.

Ineligible Tracking System (ITS): A tracking system designed to identify producers who are ineligible to participate in any program administered by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation.

Inert ingredient(s): In pesticides, the carrier agent that aids in the delivery, coverage, or effectiveness of the active ingredient. Carrier agents include water, petroleum distillates, talc, corn meal, and soaps.

Infiltration: The flow of water from the land surface into the subsurface.

Infrastructure: The transportation network, communications systems, financial institutions, and other public and private services necessary for economic activity.

Ingredient: Any substance used in the preparation of an agricultural product that is still present in the final commercial product as consumed.

Ingredients statement (list): The list of ingredients contained in a product shown in their common and usual names in the descending order of predominance.

Initiative for Future Agricultural and Food Systems (IFAFS) (7 U.S.C. § 7621): A new entitlement program for competitively awarded research, authorized under the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998 (Sec. 401). Priority mission areas to be addressed are (a) the food genome, (b) food safety, food technology, and human nutrition; (c) new and alternative uses and production of agricultural commodities and products; (d) agricultural biotechnology; and (e) natural resource management. The Initiative also includes provisions that allow merit/peer review and lets those who benefit from agricultural research provide input about the priority-setting process. The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 7205(a)(2)) amended the program to add rural, economic, and business and community development as critical emerging areas to be addressed by IFAFS. The Consolidated Appropriations Resolution, 2003, (Division A, Title VII, Sec. 721), prohibits the use of funds to carry out provisions of this program. However, the USDA is authorized (Division A, Title VII, Sec. 737) to use up to 20 percent of funds made available for competitive grants under the Competitive, Special, and Facilities Research Grant Act utilizing the same terms and conditions as those provided in the IFAFS program. Inland transport: The activity or cost of moving food from ocean port to first point of delivery in the country from where distribution or sale can occur.

Inland transport: The activity or cost of moving food from ocean port to first point of delivery in the country from where distribution or sale can occur.

Innocent lender: A lender of credit who comes into ownership of land, as part of the lending relationship, that is found to contain an environmental hazard, and who (a) exercised due diligence and conducted an appropriate inquiry into current and prior uses of the property, finding no evidence of contamination, (b) did not itself contribute to the contamination, and (c) disclosed existence of contamination upon knowledge of such. Typically, commercial lenders are held to a higher standard of care because of the presumption that a lender in the business is more cognizant of environmental risks.

Innovators: Those people or firms who are the first to develop or try new methods or practices.

Inorganic: See Abiotic.

Input(s): (1) An item used in the production of food or other agricultural products such as seed, fertilizer, chemicals (pesticides), animal feed, drugs, machinery, fuel, labor, and land. (2) See Agricultural input(s).

Insect growth regulator(s): Substances that disrupt molting, maturity from the pupal to adult stage, or other life processes of insects. See Growth regulator(s).

Insecticide(s): Pesticides that kill insects and other arthropods.

Inspection and grading (dairy): Activities carried out through four major Agricultural Marketing Service programs, designed to improve the quality, manufacture, and distribution of dairy products: (a) plant inspections and equipment reviews, (b) inspection and grading, (c) dairy product grades and quality approval, and (d) resident grading and quality control.

Inspection(s); inspect(ed): See Grades and standards, Grain inspection, Grain standards, Grain weighing, Meat and poultry inspection, and Warehouse inspection.

Institutional farm: Farms operated by hospitals, penitentiaries, churches, schools, universities, grazing associations, and government agencies.

Institutional Strengthening Assistance grants (ISA): As part of P.L. 480, the U.S. Agency for International Development administers the ISA to strengthen the capacities of its cooperating partners to manage food aid programs through support of upgrading in-country administrative and managerial capacity.

Instrument classing: See High Volume Instrument classing.

Insular area(s): Typically any of the following: American Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, the Marshall Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, the Virgin Islands, Republic of Palau, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Insurable commodity: Under the Agricultural Assistance Act of 2003 (Division N, Title II, Sec. 202(h)(2)), an agricultural commodity (excluding livestock) for which the producers on a farm are eligible to obtain a policy or plan of insurance under the Federal Crop Insurance Act.

Insurable interest: The portion of an insured crop a person has at risk in the event of an insurable loss. See Federal crop insurance.

Insurable yield: See Actual production history (APH).

Insurance: See Federal crop insurance.

Insurance period: The period of crop insurance coverage that usually begins when the crop is planted and ends at the earliest of (a) total destruction of the crop, (b) harvest, (c) final adjustment of a loss, (d) abandonment of the crop, or (e) a designated end date. See Insurance year.

Insurance provider(s): A company, reinsured by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, that provides crop insurance coverage to producers participating in any Federal Crop Insurance program.

Insurance unit(s): For crop insurance pruposes, each parcel of land that is insured independently of other parcels. One farming operation may have several insurance units. See Basic unit(s), Enterprise unit(s), Optional unit(s), and Whole farm unit(s).

Insurance year: The period beginning January 1 and extending through December 31 of the same year that corresponds to the period of coverage under the insurance policy.

Insured crop(s): Crops insured by either catastrophic coverage or buy-up crop insurance.

Insured loan(s): Farm Service Agency direct loans using funds borrowed from money markets rather than from the U.S. Treasury. See Direct loan(s).

Insurnace unit(s): For crop insurance pruposes, each parcel of land that is insured independently of other parcels. One farming operation may have several insurance units. See Basic unit(s), Enterprise units(s), Optional unit(s), and Whole farm unit(s).

Intact pig: An uncastrated male pig maintained for purposes other than breeding.

Intangible assets: The value of brand names, goodwill, patents, and trademarks.

Integrated Activities: As authorized by the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998 (Sec. 406) (7 U.S.C. § 7626), an integrated research, education, and extension competitive grants program. Water Quality, Food Safety, and Regional Pest Management Centers programs previously funded under Research and Education and Extension activities are included under this account, as well as new programs that support integrated or multi-functional projects. The program was reauthorized by the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 7125). See Crops at Risk (CAR), Methyl Bromide Transitions Program (MBT), Organic Transitions (ORG), and Risk Avoidance and Mitigation Program (RAMP).

Integrated control: The use of all known effective control methods on diseases and insect pests of crops for maximum results, but causing the least damage to the environment.

Integrated crop management (ICM): An agriculture management system that integrates all controllable agricultural production factors for long-term sustained productivity, profitability, and ecological soundness.

Integrated culture (fish); A combination of extensive culture and intensive culture. For example, fish may be intensively cultured as larvae or juveniles but grown out to adulthood extensively.

Integrated farm management program option (IFMP): Authorized by the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990, the program was designed to reduce penalties for not specializing in price-support crop monoculture. The program protected the participant’s crop acreage bases, payment yields, and program payments, while allowing participants to adopt resource-conserving crop rotations. An incentive payment of up to $3,500 per participant was authorized.

Integrated farming systems (IFS); integrated food and farming systems (IFFS): The concept that by viewing farms and the food production system as an integrated whole, more efficient use can be made of natural, economic, and social resources while maintaining productivity and profitability.

Integrated pest management (IPM): A pest control strategy based on the determination of an economic threshold that indicates when a pest population is approaching the level at which control measures are necessary to prevent a decline in net returns. In principle, IPM is an ecologically based strategy that relies on natural mortality factors, such as natural enemies, weather, and crop management, and seeks control tactics that disrupt these factors as little as possible. Specific approaches include selection of resistant varieties, timing of cultivation, biological control methods, and minimal use of chemical pesticides so that natural enemies of pests are not destroyed. These approaches are used to anticipate and prevent pests and diseases from reaching economically damaging levels. The USDA had a goal of implementing IPM methods on 75 percent of the nation’s cropland by 2000.

Integrated research, education, and extension competitive grants program: See Integrated Activities.

Integration: The combining of various steps in the production and marketing of a commodity under the management or control of a single firm. See Horizontal integration, and Vertical integration; vertically integrated.

Intensive culture (fish); The raising of fish whereby the culturist has direct control over habitat, water quality, and food supply, often at a very high density. See Extensive culture (fish), Integrated culture (fish), Raceway(s), and Tank(s); circular tank (culture).

Intensive forestry; intensive forest management: The practice of forestry (such as planting, thinning, fertilization, harvesting, and genetic improvement) so as to obtain a high level of volume and quality of product per unit of area, through the application of the best techniques of silviculture and management.

Intensive grazing management: Grazing management that attempts to increase production or utilization per unit area or production per animal through a relative increase in stocking rates, forage utilization, labor, resources, or capital.

Intensive grazing system: Livestock and grass management practices that focus on increased levels of producer involvement, leading to increased productivity and the sustainability of the land. Producers practicing intensive grazing must closely follow the interactions between plants, animals, soil, and water. Also Controlled grazing system.

Interactive video; interactive video equipment: Equipment used to produce and prepare for transmission audio and visual signals from at least two distant locations such that individuals at such locations can verbally and visually communicate with each other. Such equipment includes monitors, other display devices, cameras or other recording devices, and audio pickup devices.

Intercropping: The planting of one crop into another crop, either between the rows or into the stubble of a previous crop. See Double-crop(ping)(ped), Mixed cropping, Ratoon crop(ping), Relay cropping, and Sequential cropping.

Interest buy-down: A plan to assist people and firms in financial difficulty with large debts. The lender may reduce the interest rate and the government will pay part of the interest cost so that totoal interest payments are reduced. It may be conbined with a programto get lenders to scale down the size of the debt. Both interest buy-down and farm debt adjustment were used to help U.S. producers in the 1930s, and again in a more limited program in the 1980s and 19990s.

Interest payment certificate: A means available to the USDA to refund interest charges on nonrecourse loans. The USDA may provide a negotiable certificate, redeemable for Commodity Credit Corporation commodities, to any producer who repays, with interest, a price-support loan for wheat, feed grains, rice, or upland cotton.

Intermediary Relending Program (IRP): Loans are made to nonprofit corporations, public agencies, Indian tribes, or cooperatives to establish revolving loan funds from which the borrower, in turn, makes loans to establish new businesses, expand existing businesses, create employment opportunities, save existing jobs, or construct community development projects. Organizations that receive these loans from the USDA are referred to as intermediaries, and persons who borrow from intermediaries are referred to as ultimate recipients. The term and interest rate to ultimate recipients are set by the intermediary. Ultimate recipients must not be located in a city with a population of 25,000 or more.

Intermediary(ies): See Intermediary Relending Program (IRP).

Intermediate agricultural products: See Value-added intermediate (agricultural products).

Intermediate Export Credit Guarantee Program (GSM-103): A program, established by the Food Security Act of 1985, that complements the Export Credit Guarantee Program (GSM-1O2) by guaranteeing repayment of private credit for three to ten years. The objective of the program is to improve U.S.export competitiveness by facilitating the extension of export credit to middle-income countries that do not have access to adequate commercial credit.

Intermediate quarantine: A quarantine in a country other than the country of origin or destination.

Intermediate-term loan(s) (IT): A loan to be repaid (or amortized) over a period of 18 months to ten years, with three to seven years being most common. Intermediate-term loans typically are used to finance machinery, equipment, automobiles, trucks, breeding livestock, improvements, and other durable, yet depreciable, assets.

Intermittent grazing: A grazing method that imposes grazing for indefinite periods at irregular intervals.

Internal support(s): Measures, such as direct payments to producers and deficiency payments, that act to maintain producer prices at levels above those prevailing in international trade, and input and marketing cost reduction measures available only for agricultural production.

International Agricultural Science and Education programs: Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service programs designed to strengthen U.S. economic competitiveness and promote international market development by (a) enhancing the international content of curricula in U.S. colleges and universities; (b) ensuring that U.S. scientists, extension agents, and educators involved in agricultural research and development activities outside the U.S. have the opportunity to convey the implications of their activities and findings to peers, students, and stakeholders in the U.S.; and (c) enhancing the capabilities of colleges and universities to do collaborative research with other countries, provide cooperative extension education to promote the application of new technologies developed in foreign countries, and provide leadership and educational programs that will assist U.S. food production, processing, distribution, and natural resources businesses to compete internationally. The National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (Sec. 1459A) (7 U.S.C. § 3292b) authorized the providing of competitive grants to support these activities, which were were reauthorized through FY2007 by the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 7112).

International Bovine Meat Agreement: The agreement in the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture that carries forward the Arrangement Regarding Bovine Meat concluded in the Tokyo Round of GATT. It serves primarily as a mechanism to exchange and evaluate information on supply and demand in world markets, and for consultation on matters affecting trade. The U.S. is a signatory.

International Cocoa Agreement (ICCA): An agreement, originally signed in 1970, designed to stabilize world cocoa prices through various buffer stock mechanisms. The agreement is similar to the International Coffee Agreement.

International Coffee Agreement (ICA): An agreement originally signed in 1962 by 67 countries, including the U.S., concerning the pricing and market sharing of coffee. The signatories represent all of the world’s major exporters and importers of coffee.

International commodity agreement(s) (ICA): Agreements that contain substantive economic provisions aimed at stabilizing world trade, supplies, and prices. The agreements may include import quota agreements among exporters, buffer stock systems, or multilateral agreements between exporters and importers. The International Coffee Agreement, for example, was signed by 67 countries, including the U.S., representing all of the world’s major exporters and importers of coffee. Agreements have also been negotiated for dairy products, olive oil, sugar, and wheat. See International Dairy Arrangement (IDA), International Olive Oil Agreement (IOOA), International Sugar Agreement (ISA), and International Wheat Agreement (IWA).

International Dairy Arrangement (IDA): An arrangement originally under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade signed by all 18 major dairy producing and exporting countries, with the objective of expanding and liberalizing world trade in dairy products by improving international cooperation. The U.S. withdrew from the agreement in 1985 because the European Community (EC) was violating a major objective of the IDA by selling butter and other basic dairy products at prices below the established minimum exportprices. The Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture included the IDA, which is only binding on the signatories.

International Forestry: The Forest Service Office of International Programs links the field-based staff of the Forest Service with overseas assignments in the areas of policy and technical assistance, and disaster coordination. The focus is on key natural resource problems and issues in countries with significant forest resources and important forest-related trade with the U.S.

International Grains Agreement (IGA): Comprises a Grains Trade Convention and a Food Aid Convention. They are institutionally linked, in that the Food Aid Convention depends on the existence of the Grains Trade Convention. The IGA is administered by the International GrainsCouncil (IGC), an intergovernmental forum for cooperation in wheat and coarse grains matters.

International Monetary Fund (IMF): An international financial institution, established in 1946, that seeks to stabilize the international monetary system as a sound basis for the orderly expansion of international trade. Principally, the Fund monitors exchange rate policies of member countries, lends them foreign exchange resources to support their adjustment policies when they experience balance of payments difficulties, and provides them financial assistance when they experience temporary shortfalls in commodity export earnings.

International Olive Oil Agreement (IOOA): An agreement signed by 17 major exporters and importers to ensure fair competition, delivery of the commodity (in accordance with contract specifications), and stabilization and development of olive oil markets. The U.S. is not a member.

International Programs (IP):The Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) unit responsible for program leadership in international efforts including (a) policy formulation for CSREES and cooperating university participation in international programs; (b) education programs to increase public understanding of the relationship of global hunger and agricultural development to the health of the U.S. economy; (c) technical assistance for overseas development projects that provide in-depth international experiences for U.S. agricultural scientists and educators; and (d) representation of CSREES with other national and international program units and organizations.

International Services (IS): The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service unit that works outside the U.S. to protect U.S. agriculture and enhance agricultural trade. IS maintains a comprehensive information network, exchanges technical information, and provides expertise to foreign governments and international groups. IS also negotiates with foreign agricultural officials concerning entry requirements for U.S. agricultural products, conducts cooperative agricultural pest and disease programs in foreign locations, and manages preclearance programs for agricultural products shipped to the U.S.

International Sugar Agreement (ISA): An agreement enacted in 1969 to help stabilize international trade in sugar at equitable prices, and to aid those countries whose economies are largely dependent on the production and export of sugar. The U.S. is not a member.

International trade barriers (ITBs): Regulations used by governments to restrict imports from other countries. Examples include tariffs, embargoes, import quotas, and unnecessary sanitary restrictions.

International Trade Commission (ITC): An independent governmental agency established in 1916 to monitor trade, provide economic analyses, and make recommendations to the President in cases of unfair trade practices. Interest groups, such as producers or trade associations, can petition the ITC to investigate the trade practices of other countries to determine whether material harm has been done to U.S. producers.

International Wheat Agreement (IWA): (1) An international commodity agreement designed to gather information on world wheat markets and provide means for regular review of trading conditions among wheat-exporting and wheat-importing nations. It also provides for food aid shipments to needy nations. (2) An agreement to stabilize trade in wheat and other grains. This agreement contains two conventions: the Wheat Trade Convention, and the Food Aid Convention. The Wheat Trade Convention, signed by 60 countries including the U.S., provides a forum for the periodic exchange of information among member countries on the world grain situation. The Food Aid Convention, signed by 11 countries, commits signatories to minimum annual food aid contributions of edible grains or cash.

Internet: The global connection of interconnected local, mid-level, and wide-area automated information/communications networks. Interplanted: For crop insurance purposes, acreage on which two or more crops are planted in a manner that does not permit separate agronomic maintenance or harvest of the insured crop.

Interplanted: For crop insurance purposes, acreage on which two or more crops are planted in a manner that does not permit separate agronomic maintenance or harvest of the insured crop.

Interregional research project No. 4 (IR-4): See IR-4, and Pesticide clearance.

Intolerant: A tree incapable of developing and growing normally in the shade of, and in competition with, other trees.

Intramuscular fat: See Marbling.

Intrinsic value: The amount by which an option is in-the-money. See In-the-money option.

Introduction: The entry of a pest or disease resulting in its establishment, or the release of a biological control agent, into an ecosytem where it did not exist previously.

Invasive alien species: See Exotic species.

Invasive species: Imported organisms that invade and rapidly spread in natural areas with harmful consequences. Many invasive species spread rapidly to form dense populations, primarily by out-competing native species due to a lack of natural controls. SeeExotic species.

Invasive weed(s): See Exotic weed(s), and Noxious weed(s).

Inventory (CCC): Commodities forfeited to or purchased by the Commodity Credit Corporation.

Inventory adjustment: The difference between the value of commodity inventories at the beginning of the calendar year and the end of the calendar year. This is a function of both changes in prices and changes in the amount of inventories.

Inventory property: Property owned by USDA that may be sold. The government gets title to properties in some cases where the borrower fails to pay back his or her loan owed to the government. When that happens, the property is said to be “in inventory” until it is sold. The property may be real property (land) or personal property (goods). The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Sec. 5307) directed the Farm Service Agency to maximize opportunities for beginning farmers and ranchers to acquire inventory property.

Inventory reduction payments: Payments, in the form of generic commodity certificates and subject to the $250,000 payment limitation, to be made for participation in the inventory reduction program.

Inventory reduction program: A discretionary program introduced in the Food Security Act of 1985 to provide producers with payments-in-kind (PIK) generic commodity certificates if they reduced acreage by half the required reduction and agreed to forgo loans, loan deficiency payments, and deficiency payments. The inventory reduction payments, also known as producer option payments, were to be computed in the same way as loan deficiency payments. An inventory reduction program was not implemented. Also Producer option payment(s).

Inventory valuation (methods): Agricultural inventory is measured by the following methods: (a) cost method – items are valued at cost of production or purchase; (b) market price method – items are valued at market price less cost of marketing; (c) unit livestock method –livestock are grouped according to age and kind; value for each group is calculated by averaging price for the last three to five years; (d) depreciated cost method – the value of an asset is reduced as it is used up in a predetermined time period; (e) replacement cost method – used in appraisals; calculates the cost of replacing a structure with one of equal utility; (f) capitalization method – also used in appraisals; used to get the value of income producing property; and (g) comparative value method – used by tax assessors.

Inversion(s): The conversion of sucrose, with the addition of water, into a mixture of equal amounts of glucose and fructose. The action is one of hydrolysis and may be carried out by the action of the enzyme invertase, or by heating with dilute acids.

Invert sugar(s): A mixture of glucose and fructose, normally prepared by the hydrolysis (inversion) of sucrose achieved by subjecting a sucrose solution to acid and heat. Invert sugar is some 10 percent sweeter than the equivalent amount of sucrose. SeeInvert syrup(s).

Invert syrup(s): Prepared by the acid hydrolysis (inversion) of a solution of refined sugar. It has a high sweetening power relative to sucrose, contains equal proportions of glucose and fructose, has wide application especially where high concentrations of invert sugars are required, and extends the shelf life of many products.

Inverted market: A futures market in which the nearby futures contract and the current cash offer are trading above distant contracts. Usually indicates strong current demand for the cash market.

IOOA: International Olive Oil Agreement

IP: Identity preserved

IP: Income protection

IP: International Programs

IPM: Integrated Pest Management

IPM Section 406 Program: A program promoting the development of new integrated pest management approaches or the improvement of existing IPM systems to solve critical agricultural issues, priorities, or problems through the integration of research, education, and extension activities. The programs included in the IPM Section 406 Program are Crops at Risk, Risk Avoidance and Mitigation Program, and Methyl Bromide Transitions Program. See Integrated Activities and Integrated Research, Education, and Extension Competitive Grants Program.

IR-4: Interregional research No. 4. See IR-4 Project, Minor-use crops, Minor-use pesticides, and Pesticide clearance.

IR-4 Project: A federal program to clear chemical and biological pest control agents for use on minor crops where the volume of pest control product is insufficient to justify the commercial investment necessary to obtain a federal registration. The project is a partnership program involving the State Agricultural Experiment Stations, the Cooperative Extension Service, the USDA, the Environmental Protection Agency, agrichemical companies, producers, and producer organizations. See Minor-use crops, Minor-use pesticides, and Pesticide clearance.

IRMA: Individual Risk Management Accounts

IRP: Intermediary Relending Program

Irradiation (pasteurization): The use of ionizing radiation on food to kill insects and microorganisms that cause spoilage or human health problems. Irradiation provides an alternative, nonchemical substitute to some preservatives and post-harvest fumigants. In the U.S., irradiation is legal for controlling trichinae in fresh pork, decontaminating spices, controlling insects in foods, and extending the shelf life of fruits and vegetables. Also Cold pasteurized. See Pasteurization; pasteurizing; pasteurized.

IRRI: International Rice Research Institute

Irrigated land: Land watered by any artificial or controlled means such as sprinklers, flooding, furrows, ditches, and spreader dikes. Included are supplemental, partial, and preplant irrigation.

Irrigation return flow: See Return flow.

Irrigation water management: Determining and controlling the rate, amount, and timing of irrigation water in a planned and efficient manner.

Irrigation; irrigate(s)(ed)(ing): The controlled application of water for agricultural purposes through manmade systems to supply water requirements not satisfied by rainfall.

IS: International Services

ISA: Institutional Strengthening Assistance grants

ISA: International Sugar Agreement

ISO: International Organization for Standardization

ISO transceiver (reader): A device that receives and reads radio signals from transponders.

ISO transponder: A radio frequency identification device that transmits its transponder code when activated by a transceiver.

Isolated waters: Isolated, intrastate waters that are neither navigable-in-fact nor otherwise connected to traditionally navigable bodies of water. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on January 9, 2001, in Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that the Clean Water Act of 1972 does not authorize the Army Corps of Enginee through the Section 404 process to regulate isolated waters and isolated wetlands, which are located away from rivers, lakes, or other bodies of water.

Isolated wetlands: Non-tidal wetlands that are not part of a surface tributary system to intrastate or navigable waters of the U.S. and are not adjacent to such tributary water bodies. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on January 9, 2001, in Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that the Clean Water Act of 1972 does not authorize the Army Corps of Engineers through the Section 404 process to regulate isolated waters and isolated wetlands, which are located away from rivers, lakes, or other bodies of water. See Pothole(s) (prairie).

Issued certificate: A generic commodity certificate issued directly to a producer by the USDA. Also Own certificate.

IT: Intermediate-term loan(s)

ITBs: International Trade Barriers

ITC: International Trade Commission

ITDC: International Trade and Development Centers

ITS: Ineligible Tracking System

IWA: International Wheat Agreement