U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has announced that USDA is opening the enrollment period for the new Farmer Bridge Assistance Program.
It’ll provide $11 billion in one-time bridge payments to row crop production in response to temporary trade markets and temporary disruptions in trading and increased production costs. The enrollment period opens up February the 23rd and closes on April the 17th. These bridge payments are authorized under the Commodity Credit Corporation Act and are administered by the Farm Service Agency, FSA.
Bridge payments are intended, in part, to aid farmers until historical investments from the One Big Beautiful Farm Bill, including reference prices that are at record levels of about 10 to 21 percent increase in major coverage for commodities. So this will reach eligible farmers after October the 1st on the Big Beautiful Bill, but this is a bridge payment to get us from now until that new Big Beautiful Bill kicks in. That’s from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Audio Reporting by Tyron Spearman for Southeast AgNet.