Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed information for crop year 1990, focusing on the: (1) number of individuals that received income support payments in their own name through entities, general partnerships, and joint ventures, for participation in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) farm programs; and (2) amount of those payments.

GAO found that: (1) USDA made payments to producers from several farm programs; (2) the amount of deficiency payments that producers received varies with their level of production, market price, and the target price; (3) for crop year 1990, about 1 million individuals receive payments; (4) of the individuals that received payment, 829,572 received about $4.8 billion in their own name, 171,559 who owned an interest in one or more entities received about $935 million, 87,909 who owned an interest in general partnerships and joint ventures received about $628 million, and 15,405 who owned an interest in one or more entities and general partnerships received about $316 million; and (5) deficiency payments varies widely among individuals, ranging from $1 to $10,000, and averaged about $2,500.