The USDA will not make Trump tariff payments on farmland that is not planted this year, because it’s not allowed by law to do so, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Monday. But there may be a way to provide some assistance to growers from the $14.5 billion in Market Facilitation Program (MFP) funds allotted for this year’s crops, Perdue said, ahead of President Trump’s visit to Iowa.
“We are exploring legal flexibilities to provide a minimal per-acre market facilitation payment to folks who filed prevent plant and chose to plant an MFP-eligible cover crop, with the potential to be harvested and for subsequent use of those cover crops for forage,” said Perdue in a statement. Besides the Trump payments, Congress provided $3 billion in agricultural aid in a disaster bill that President Trump signed last week.
The disaster funds can be used to compensate growers who were prevented from planting crops due to adverse weather this spring. “It is generally true that producers with qualifying losses in a (USDA) of presidentially-declared disaster area will be eligible for Disaster Relief Act assistance,” said USDA. “Producers with qualifying losses outside of those areas will have eligibility determined on a case-by-case basis.” The disaster bill also raised the compensation factor for prevented planting payments. The USDA cautioned it has to stretch the $3 billion over a wide range of damage so it is “highly unlikely” that a 90 percent compensation factor will be possible.
To see Perdue’s statement and USDA question-and-answers on disaster aid, click here.