US President Donald Trump is set to unveil a $12bn (£9bn) farm aid package aimed at helping farmers impacted by low crop prices and the administration’s ongoing trade wars.
Most of the money – $11bn – is earmarked for one-time payments to farmers for row crops as part of the agriculture department’s Farmer Bridge Assistance programme, with another billion reserved for crops not covered by the programme.
While farmers have broadly supported Trump, the agriculture sector has been disrupted by trade disputes during his second term, particularly with China.
The White House says the plan will help farmers suffering from “years of unjustified trade actions” and accumulated inflation.
Trump is scheduled to announce the plan at the White House at 14:00 est (21:00g_ at a White House event alongside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.
Members of Congress and corn, cotton, sorghum, soybean, rice, cattle, wheat and potato farmers are expected to attend.
Sorghum and soybean farmers have been hit hard by the Trump administration’s trade dispute with China, the greatest importer of their crops.
According to a White House official, the payments are intended to help farmers market this year’s harvest and plan for next year’s crops, as well as act as a bridge until the administration’s policies “deliver a better market environment”.
The announcement comes as polls suggest Americans are increasingly concerned about rising costs – an issue which Trump has at times characterised as a “hoax” and a “con job” perpetrated by Democrats.
Mark Legan, a livestock, corn and soybean farmer in Putnam County, Indiana, told the BBC that the government aid would “help our bottom line”
As crop prices have fallen and profitability has plummeted, he could use the funds to help replace tractors and other machinery – investments he has put on hold.
During his first administration, Trump also provided aid packages to farmers, including $22bn in 2019 and another $46bn in a 2020 package that also included relief from the Covid pandemic.
Mr Legan said he believed the new package would be similar to what he received during the first Trump term, in that it would not resolve persistent cost pressures and shrinking export markets, he said.
“The problem is still that we have high costs of production,” Mr Legan said, pointing to record high prices for crop protection chemicals and seeds.
“While some markets have opened up, we’re still not back to exporting as much ag products as we have in the past,” he added.
Following an October meeting between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea, the White House said China had committed to buying at least 12 tonnes of US soybeans by the end of 2025, followed by 25 metric tonnes annually for the next three years.
So far, China has only purchased approximately one-quarter of that amount.
Those purchases, however, have accelerated, and Bessent told CBS, the BBC’s US partner, that China is likely to meet the goal by the end of February.
Asked why a farm aid package was necessary, Bessent said “the Chinese actually used our soybean farmers as pawns in the trade negotiations”.
“We are going to create this bridge because…agriculture is all about the future,” he said. “You’ve got to start financing for planning next year when things will be very good.”
On Saturday, he signed an executive order creating food supply chain security “task forces” and assessing “anti-competitive behaviour” in the agricultural sector.
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