Pennsylvania Farm Bureau President Chris Hoffman commented today on USDA’s announcement of the distribution of its $10 billion Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) funds that will be issued directly to agricultural producers for the 2024 crop year. Administered by USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), ECAP will help agricultural producers mitigate the impacts of increased input costs and falling commodity prices.
“Pennsylvania Farm Bureau immensely appreciates the work of USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins and the team at the Farm Service Agency (FSA) for announcing the distribution plan for the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP), the $10 billion in economic assistance funds for agriculture that were promised in the December continuing resolution. Those funds would not have been included in the continuing resolution without Farm Bureau, so I also want to extend my appreciation and applaud our membership for being engaged and advocating on behalf of the Commonwealth’s agricultural industry.
The agricultural community has suffered significant natural disasters, record-high inflation, animal, and plant disease outbreaks, and much more over the past few years. Therefore, we were pleased to see Secretary Rollins and FSA prioritize getting these funds to our farmers by the 90-day deadline that Congress set and within the first 100 days of the new Administration. Not only did USDA meet the deadline, but they also streamlined the process by having FSA send pre-filled applications to producers who submitted acreage reports to FSA for 2024 eligible ECAP commodities. Pennsylvania’s farmers are about to start planting, so it is helpful that they do not have to jump through multiple hoops to acquire funds.
We still look to Congress to pass a new farm bill, so we can avoid future emergency supplemental relief spending for farmers.”
For more information on ECAP, please click here.