By Chris Clayton
Crop farmers will receive $20 an acre payments under the $900 billion emergency aid deal reached by Congress on Sunday.
The aid package comes as Congress is trying to close out 2020 and fund the federal government for the rest of its fiscal year. The House and Senate each approved one-day extensions on Sunday to reach a final deal on the aid package and overall federal funding for the rest of fiscal-year 2021.
Specifically, the bill includes an estimated $5 billion that will provide supplemental $20 per-acre payments to all row-crop producers, according to details releases by Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
Another $3 billion will provide payments to cattle producers, contract growers of livestock and poultry, dairy farmers and livestock producers who were forced to euthanize their livestock or poultry because of the pandemic and its impacts on the supply chain. Another $225 million will be provides for supplemental payments to specialty-crop growers who lost their crops in 2019.
Overall, the aid bill includes $13 billion set aside for food purchases and direct support for farmers and ranchers.
Besides direct aid that could come from USDA programs, farmers and other small businesses should start working with their lenders to see if they may qualify for another round of aid under the Small Business Administration Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The bill includes $275 billion for PPP, but also includes some expansion on businesses that qualify and carve outs for certain small businesses and minority-owned businesses. Last spring and summer when the Treasury Department opened up PPP to banks, the funding went quickly. Agricultural-related businesses received about 1.5% of the loans.
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