What does AAA mean in BUSINESS

The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was a federal law passed in 1933, as part of the New Deal legislation. It provided incentives for farmers to reduce production, thereby helping to stabilize prices and increasing income for American farmers during the Great Depression.

The AAA also encouraged soil conservation efforts, giving assistance to farmers through price supports, restrictions on production, loans and subsidies. Other measures included crop insurance programs and conservation payments designed to compensate landowners who left acreage idle or planted cover crops that restored soil fertility.

Farmers benefitted by receiving funding intended to support their incomes when market prices dropped due to overproduction. They also received government subsidies that helped them plant other crops or maintain healthy soil fertility levels while they adjusted their farming operations. Additionally, farms were classified according to size and type so that various types of farms such as subsistence farms would receive greater aid than larger agribusinesses when conditions were difficult for producers due to weather or market conditions.

Any farmer who complied with certain guidelines set forth by the U.S Department of Agriculture could be eligible for benefits from this program. Under certain criteria it could be an individual farm owner, tenant farmer or sharecropper who met these qualifications and had not exceeded certain acreage requirements depending upon individual state laws governing eligibility at that time.

In 1943 Congress repealed most provisions of the AAA but maintained some protections related specifically to crop insurance programs which remain in place today.