The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Tuesday (June 15) it plans to provide roughly $6 billion in additional aid to farmers, ranchers and others who make their living in the agriculture industry.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said there is $6 billion in available funds through the Pandemic Assistance Program to support a number of new initiatives or to modify existing efforts. He said the funds will be doled out over the next 60 days in an effort to fill the gaps in the previous round of assistance aimed at helping small and medium-size farmers who need the most support. The Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) payments will provide aid to producers and businesses left behind.
The release did allocate some of the funds toward the following agri sectors.
• $200 million: Small, family-owned timber harvesting and hauling businesses
• $700 million: Biofuels producers
• Support for dairy farmers and processors to include $400 million for a new Dairy Donation Program to address food insecurity and mitigate food waste and loss, additional pandemic payments targeted to dairy farmers who have demonstrated losses that have not been covered by previous pandemic assistance, and approximately $580 million for supplemental Dairy Margin Coverage for small and medium farms.
• Assistance for poultry and livestock producers left out of previous rounds of pandemic assistance to include contract growers of poultry and livestock and poultry producers forced to euthanize animals during the pandemic (March 1, 2020 through Dec. 26, 2020).
• $700 million: Pandemic Response and Safety Grants for PPE and other protective measures to help specialty crop growers, meat packers and processors, seafood industry workers, among others
• Up to $20 million: Additional organic cost share assistance, including for producers who are transitioning to organic
