The second installment of the Market Facilitation Program 2 (MFP 2) payments to farmers has been approved, USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue confirmed in a press call with reporters.
“We have just gotten authorization on the second tranche” of aid payments and USDA is working to get them ready “hopefully by the end of this month, early December,” he remarked. Asked if another MFP effort in 2020 is in the cards, Perdue said he hoped that a U.S.-China deal could temper the need for such an effort. USDA has paid out $6.7 billion under the MFP 2 program so far.
The amount of Chinese purchasing under discussion “would be very beneficial to agricultural producers and we’re hopeful that trade would supplant any type of farm aid needed in 2020 in that regard,” Perdue told reporters. However, given that the commodity purchases by China will be ramping up over at least a two-year period, that could temper the market response.
An MFP 3 program is potentially more difficult, but not impossible, to get approved. Meanwhile, USDA Undersecretary Bill Northey said in Minnesota Thursday that USDA has paid out $500 million in the top-up payments on prevent plant under the disaster aid effort.
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