Farmers Receive $12 Billion in Subsidies Through USDA

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced details of actions the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will take to assist farmers in response to trade damage. President Donald J. Trump directed Secretary Perdue to craft a short-term relief strategy to protect agricultural producers. As announced last month, USDA will authorize up to $12 billion in programs, consistent with World Trade Organization obligations.

Programs that will assist agricultural producers include:  Farm Service Agency (FSA) will administer the Market Facilitation Program (MFP) to provide payments to corn, cotton, dairy, hog, sorghum, soybean, and wheat producers (applications available online at farmers.gov/mfp), Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will administer a Food Purchase and Distribution Program and Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) will distribute these commodities through nutrition assistance programs, and through the Foreign Agricultural Service’s (FAS) Agricultural Trade Promotion Program (ATP), $200 million will be made available to develop foreign markets for U.S. agricultural products. Full details on these programs are available at usda.gov.