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USDA opens enrollment for Bridge Assistance, specialty crop growers encouraged to sign up acres

USDA’s Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation says specialty crop growers will be able to sign up for Farmer Bridge Assistance Program aid following acreage reporting deadlines.

Richard Fordyce tells Brownfield, “There’s a bunch of crops on there, and we’re asking farmers that grow those crops to make sure they have a completed acreage report, and that acreage report timeline will be open until March 13th.”

Fordyce says once acres are accounted for, the agency will work out payment rates from the $1 billion allocated, and needs to adjust software for the enrollment process.

USDA has announced $150 million will be allocated to sugar producers as part of the farm relief.

“It’s likely that the support in this part of the Farmer Bridge Program will go out as block grants to the processors,” he says. “That’s the way we’ve worked with those farmers before.”

Kam Quarles with the National Potato Council tells Brownfield the USDA needs more resources to meet the needs of all producers impacted by the farm economy.

“When you stretch that all the way out, those dollars just don’t go very far,” he says. “I think that’s why there really needs to be Congress getting involved to reload these resources.”

Nearly 100 different specialty crops will be eligible for assistance later this spring.

This week, the USDA opened enrollment for $11 billion in Farmer Bridge Assistance for more than 20 row crops.

AUDIO: USDA Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation Richard Fordyce