USDA Announces Payment Rates for Farmer Bridge Assistance Program

Smith: Late in 2025, USDA announced the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program that set aside $12 billion in assistance for U.S. farmers and ranchers. Faith Parum, an economist for the American Farm Bureau Federation, says rates vary based on each eligible crop.

Parum: $11 billion being in the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program for row crop producers. And so, these are one-time bridge payments, and they are per-acre, by-crop, and so, they range from $8 all the way up to $130, and it really just depends on the crop.

Smith: Parum says USDA is looking to pay out the assistance relatively quickly.

Parum: Farmers should have reported their acreage to FSA by the December deadline, and now all they have to do is wait for a pre-filled application to apply to receive the funding. So, they should stay in contact with their local FSA agents to see how those pre-filled applications will be distributed and make sure they turn them in. There should be a payment by the end of February.

Smith: Only $1 billion was set aside for specialty crop producers, which Parum said won't be enough.

Parum: The USDA has mentioned they need more data to understand the losses across specialty crops. Even so, this is a very small amount for lots and lots of crops. There's hundreds and hundreds of specialty crops. They have higher input costs. They have really high labor costs, high technology costs, and so we're seeing really large losses across the specialty crop field.

Smith: Learn more on the Market Intel page at fb.org. Chad Smith, Washington.