Rice Farmers Get a Share of Federal Relief

Louisiana rice farmers have at least something to smile about today. When Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced $16 billion in additional aid is being allocated to programs supporting farmers who have been impacted by retaliatory tariffs and the ongoing trade disputes, rice was included in the commodities covered by the program. In a similar program last year, rice was specifically excluded.

The three programs USDA is utilizing are the Market Facilitation Program, Food Purchase and Distribution Program and the Agricultural Trade Promotion Program, the same three used last year. Fundamentally, FPDP and ATP will be structured in similar formats, but the MFP will be focused on direct payments to farmers “based on a single county rate multiplied by a farm’s total plantings to those crops in aggregate 2019.

USDA says the provision that will establish these programs is currently in the rule making process at the Office of Management and Budget, and once the rule has been cleared, more details on the programs will be announced.