As with the initial farmer aid effort announced
in 2018, the program announced by USDA today will have three components –
payments to farmers, commodity purchases and trade promotion efforts.
The first payments will go out in late July to
early August, USDA said, with a second round of payments potentially in
late fall to November and a third installment would potentially come in
2020.
The Market Facilitation Program (MFP) for 2019
will be done via Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) Charter Act
authority and will be up to $14.5 billion. Producers of alfalfa hay,
barley, canola, corn, crambe, dry peas, extra-long staple cotton,
flaxseed, lentils, long grain and medium grain rice, mustard seed, dried
beans, oats, peanuts, rapeseed, safflower, sesame seed, small and large
chickpeas, sorghum, soybeans, sunflower seed, temperate japonica rice,
upland cotton, and wheat will receive a payment.
The payments will be based on a single county
rate multiplied by a farm’s total plantings to those crops in aggregate
in 2019. Those per-acre payments are not dependent on which of those
crops are planted in 2019, and therefore will not distort planting
decisions. And the total payment-eligible plantings cannot exceed total
2018 plantings.
Dairy producers will receive a per hundredweight
payment on production history and hog producers will receive a payment
based on hog and pig inventory for a later-specified time frame.
There will also be payments to tree nut
producers, fresh sweet cherry producers, cranberry producers, and fresh
grape producers will receive a payment based on 2019 acres of
production.
The first installment will come in late July or early August. USDA will announce.
More details will be provided by USDA in terms of what those payment levels will be.