Perdue Opens Door to Adjusting Farmer Aid for Unplanted Acres

In announcing the aid package for agriculture and farmer totaling $16 billion, USDA made clear that the plan would be based on 2019 planted acres. But USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue Thursday opened the possibility that the trade aid package could be adjusted to account for acres that do not get planted this year.

"If we see any opportunity to use the Market Facilitation Program (MFP) to enhance or to help that, we will consider that,” he stated. However, he also said no decision has been made yet on that front. “We want to encourage producers to plant for the market regardless of government programs,"

Perdue said at another stop Thursday. "Do not try to harvest a government program."

House Ag Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn., noted his concern about the new MFP during a town hall meeting with farmers in southwest Minnesota Thursday morning. Peterson called USDA’s latest trade aid proposal misguided and said he told USDA if they just waited the problem would not exist relative to potentially impacting plantings.

"All you gotta do is wait three weeks, and planting will be over, and you won't have to go through all this," Peterson said he told USDA.