La. Farm Bureau Applauds Rapid ECAP Payments, Possible Improvement

By Avery J. Davidson

Louisiana Farm Bureau News

The United States Department of Agriculture is following through on its promise to get funds into farmers’ hands quickly through the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP), according to Louisiana Farm Bureau President Richard Fontenot. He expressed those sentiments in a letter he sent to Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins.

Fontenot also pointed out Louisiana Farm Bureau worked closely with Louisiana Fifth District Congresswoman Julia Letlow and Mississippi First District Congressman Trent Kelly to get the deadline directive included in the American Relief Act that passed at the end of 2024.

“It was, and remains, crucial for farmers to receive this assistance in a timely manner,” wrote Fontenot. “Thank you for solidifying this administration’s ‘promises made, promises kept’ vision as a reality when it relates to agriculture.”

In the letter, Fontenot pointed out one improvement USDA could make to ECAP that would better serve Louisiana farmers who often take advantage of the state’s longer growing season and plant more than one crop in the same field each year.

“Congress rightfully directed USDA to cover crops prevented from planting as a part of the ARA, which you have done,” Fontenot wrote. “However, the decision to only cover the prevented from planting crop in ECAP payment formulas has left many farmers in Louisiana without much needed assistance on the subsequent crop planted behind a prevented planting filed crop acre.”

Fontenot asked the Farm Service Agency to “…reconsider the lack of ECAP eligibility of the subsequent crop following a prevented from planting claim.”

Click here to read Fontenot’s letter to Sec. Rollins.