New Round of Assistance Expected for Farmers

USDA Chief Sonny Perdue expects to deliver another round of funding to farmers soon through the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP).

The USDA expects to offer CFAP 2 with the additional $14 billion in funds Congress allocated in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief & Economic Security (CARES) Act to replenish the Commodity Credit Corp., or CCC.

In the spring, the first CFAP made available $19 billion—$16 billion of which was in direct support and $3 billion through the food box program.
As of Aug. 24, USDA had issued $9 billion in payments to 541,073 applicants.

At the time of that announcement in mid-August, only 24 percent of eligible farms had applied for the assistance. The deadline to apply for that first round of CFAP has been extended to Sept. 11.

The second program will correct the arbitrary cutoff of April 15 in terms of considering farmer losses and market disruptions.

Perdue said he estimates that 89 percent of commodities are now covered through CFAP.

Source: Farm Futures