Ag Policy Blog

Next Round of MFP Payments Coming

Chris Clayton
By  Chris Clayton , DTN Ag Policy Editor
Connect with Chris:
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue speaking earlier this year at USDA's headquarters in Washington, D.C. (DTN file photo)

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue told reporters Thursday the second round of trade aid for 2019 could come later this month.

"The second tranche of the 2019 Market Facilitation Program, we'll be getting it ready hopefully at the end of this month or early December," Perdue said on a call regarding his trade trip to Mexico.

On the possibility of another round of aid payments in 2020, Perdue said he was hopeful the U.S.-China talks would come to a favorable conclusion. "The numbers they are talking about right now would be very beneficial to our agricultural producers. We're hopeful that the trade would supplant any type of farm aid needed in 2020 in that regard."

P[L1] D[0x0] M[300x250] OOP[F] ADUNIT[] T[]

Perdue noted farmers have said they would rather have trade than aid.

The secretary was on a trade mission this week to Mexico with roughly 100 agricultural representatives, which included state agriculture secretaries as well as staff representing various commodities. Perdue stressed the importance of completing the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement.

Under MFP2, USDA so far has paid out $6.69 billion to 564,181 producers. USDA reports the top five states for payments are Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Minnesota.

The 2018 MFP paid out $8.6 billion to more than 1 million farmers.

Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com

Follow him on Twitter @ChrisClaytonDTN

(TN/)

P[] D[728x170] M[320x75] OOP[F] ADUNIT[] T[]
P[L2] D[728x90] M[320x50] OOP[F] ADUNIT[] T[]

Comments

To comment, please Log In or Join our Community .